Chad Schofield made a surprise hit and run mission to the Doomben barrier trials on Tuesday to maintain his association with the Peter Moody trained Bring Me The Maid.
Chad Schofield made a hit and run mission to Doomben to ride Bring Me The Maid, above winning the Magic Night Stakes. Photo by Steve Hart.
The young jockey is on the comeback trail after suffering a fractured vertebra in his neck from a fall at Cranbourne in June and only resumed riding trackwork on Monday morning.
Schofield had been the regular rider for Bring Me The Maid and had partnered the filly at all her four starts including a third to Mossfun in the Group 1 $3.5m Tooheys New Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill during the Sydney Autumn Carnival.
He was also aboard the Sebring filly when she won her previous start, beating subsequent Group 1 Sires’ winner Peggy Jean in the Group 2 $175,000 IRT Magic Night Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill on March 29.
Schofield also steered Bring Me The Maid to a debut win over 1000m in the Listed $120,000 Sports 1000 at Flemington on March 1.
While Bring Me The Maid only finished second to the Liam Birchley trained Headwater Country in the 850m trial, Schofield was more than happy with the effort and is keen to stick with her through the Spring Carnival.
“She just had a nice quiet trial today but she did everything I wanted her to do,” Schofield told AAP.
“She’s strengthened up a bit and she felt terrific.”
“She’s obviously a very talented horse that will be competitive in whatever she runs in.”
Moody has yet to finalise any Spring plans for his Golden Slipper placegetter but will no doubt aim her towards the feature three year old races coming up in the Spring Carnival.
Schofield has made a meteoric rise up the jockey ranks and is keen to resume riding and has set down the 9th of August to return to the saddle at Flemington and said that he felt great after riding in the trial at Doomben.
“I feel great on a horse but another two weeks’ work will have me spot-on,” Schofield said.
At last year’s Spring Carnival, Schofield, still riding as an apprentice, rode with maturity way above his years to score an all the way win on Shamus Award in the Group 1 $3m Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 26.
The young jockey continued to make his presence felt among the senior riding ranks and guided super sprinter Lankan Rupee to a sensational win in the Group 1 $1m Lexus Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on March 8.
Then he added the Group 1 $400,000 Moet & Chandon Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on April 26 to his resume after scoring on the Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas trained Go Indy Go and followed that up with a win on the Henry Dwyer trained Sonntag in the Group 1 $500,000 Channel Seven Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm during the Brisbane Winter Carnival.
Schofield will finish the 2013 – 2014 racing season with twenty-seven Melbourne metropolitan winners plus four Group 1 wins to add to his resume.
In early betting for the Group 1 $500,000 Schweppes Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on October 11 Ladbrokes.com.au have Bring Me The Maid on the third line at $8 behind Blue Diamond winner Earthquake at $5.50 and Go Indy Go at $6.50 with Peggy Jean marked as a $9 chance.
