Theseo has history on his side
By LRN Staff
Ageless warrior Theseo has a small piece of Tulloch Lodge's rich history on his side as he tries to fend off glamour stablemate More Joyous in the George Main Stakes at Randwick.The George Main record book reveals there is stable precedent which gives Theseo a second-to-none chance of upsetting his more fancied younger rival.In a match-up with an uncanny resemblance to Saturday's contest over the famous mile course, Gai Waterhouse's freewheeling Grand Armee added to his Group One record when he
Ageless warrior Theseo has a small piece of Tulloch Lodge's rich history on his side as he tries to fend off glamour stablemate More Joyous in the George Main Stakes at Randwick.
The George Main record book reveals there is stable precedent which gives Theseo a second-to-none chance of upsetting his more fancied younger rival.
In a match-up with an uncanny resemblance to Saturday's contest over the famous mile course, Gai Waterhouse's freewheeling Grand Armee added to his Group One record when he relegated stablemate Shamekha into third place in the 2004 edition.
Like Theseo, Grand Armee at the time was an established star of the Waterhouse team up against a talented four-year-old mare in Shamekha.
Nash Rawiller, who rides Theseo at the expense of More Joyous because of a change to the mare's spring program, says the seven-year-old is the horse you want to have in your corner.
"I'm hoping for a dogfight and we'll see what happens from there," Rawiller said.
"But Theseo has never let me down yet."
More Joyous remained a clear-cut favourite 24 hours after betting opened to make a winning debut at weight-for-age.
TAB Sportsbet kept her at $1.85 with Theseo firm as the $3.60 second pick ahead of Danleigh, on the drift from $4.60 to $5.50.
Waterhouse's race programmer Mark Webbey is reluctant to split the stablemates, saying: "It's going to be a very interesting race.
"The decision to run More Joyous was given plenty of thought but in the end it came down to her being a Group One mare who deserves to run in a Group One race."
More Joyous is on a winning streak of six races over 12 months but she will have to end a 24-year George Main drought for mares to keep her sequence going.
Ma Chiquita won the race in 1986 and the closest a mare has come to winning since was Shania Dane's head defeat by the Waterhouse-trained Mr Celebrity in 2005.
The famed New Zealand mare Sunline tried twice to win the race with her best result coming as a four-year-old when beaten a short neck by Shogun Lodge in 1999.
Sunline was odds-on favourite in that defeat but subsequent winners who have started in the red include Lonhro ($1.70), Grand Armee ($1.85) and Racing To Win ($1.75).
Corey Brown rides More Joyous for the second time after he took over in Rawiller's absence through suspension with winning results in the Theo Marks Stakes.
"I got off her more surprised than when I got on her," he said.
Randwick was rated in the dead range on Thursday with fine weather forecast for the rest of the week.
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