Jag Guthmann-Chester has been booked to ride Religify at Doomben
Leading Queensland apprentice Jag Guthmann-Chester has a rare opportunity to ride for champion trainer Chris Waller at Doomben.
Waller usually books senior jockeys for his horses in Queensland but has decided to use Guthmann-Chester’s 2kg claim on Religify on Saturday.
Religify has been handicapped with 63kg in the Open Handicap (1640m).
The gelding is a multiple stakes winner and rated 11 points higher than the next best horse in the race.
Waller’s Queensland stable manager Paul Shailer said Religify had earned his big weight.
“We usually don’t use apprentices on our horses up here but with that type of weight we don’t have much choice,” Shailer said.
“Jag has been in good form and he is experienced. Religify is second-up and a few kilos off will help him.
“Provided he can get across near the lead and the track is dry he should be ready to fire.”
Religify won the Prime Minister’s Cup, Wayne Wilson Memorial, and Mumm Stakes last winter.
He had only two starts in the spring with seconds in the Group Two Weekend Hussler Stakes and Group Two Waterford Crystal Mile in Melbourne.
He missed the early part on the winter carnival with a setback and finished well beaten in the Eye Liner Handicap on June 16 at Ipswich at his first run back after two barrier trials in Sydney.
“Religify is suited up here and he is probably better than these on Saturday at his best,” he said.
Guthmann-Chester is leading the Brisbane metropolitan apprentices’ premiership in a season which has been truncated for him by injury.
