A successful appeal against a careless riding suspension has cleared the way for in-form jockey Jye McNeil to take some important rides at the Caulfield meeting featuring the Blue Diamond Previews.
McNeil copped two careless riding suspensions in a week which threatened to keep him out until after this weekend, but he successfully appealed his ban for his winning ride on Amadeus in the Chester Manifold Stakes.
McNeil now returns to riding on Wednesday while on Saturday at Caulfield his bookings include impressive debut winner Fresh in the Group Three Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) for two-year-old fillies.
In another of the stakes races McNeil is scheduled to continue his association with in-form four-year-old gelding Yulong January who is set to chase his fifth-straight win this campaign in the Listed John Dillon Stakes (1400m).
Fresh, trained by Peter and Paul Snowden, made an impression on debut at Geelong by winning an 1125m maiden for two-year-old fillies by three lengths.
The runner-up, Personal, has since claimed a victory at Flemington on Saturday.
“That’s a good guide to go off, so hopefully all being well she can run well on Saturday,” McNeil said.
“It will be interesting to see how she measures up at that level but obviously I’ve got quite a nice opinion of her.
“She had a little jump-out last Friday at Flemington and she seemed to go quite well. She’s definitely improved out of Geelong.
“She is dropping back to the 1000-metres, but she was quite sharp at Geelong.
“I don’t think the drop back to the 1000 will worry her, but I reckon she will run 1200 as well.
“So all being well she can measure up.”
The Previews are over 1000m, with the respective Preludes on February 8 over 1100m before the Group One Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) two weeks later.
Fresh is among 32 nominations for the fillies Preview while Saturday’s Preview for colts and geldings has 21 entries including current Blue Diamond favourite Hanseatic, to be ridden by Luke Currie.
The Anthony Freedman-trained Godolphin-owned Hanseatic was a dominant winner of the Merson Cooper Stakes at his only start in November.
