A week ago, Jordan Childs was starting to worry he’d be watching the Melbourne Cup 2020 from the grandstand but a few days later he received the news he had picked up the ride on Irish visitor Stratum Albion.
Earlier this spring the heavyweight jockey was dumped as the rider for Surprise Baby, who he partnered into fifth in last year’s Melbourne Cup.
He was replaced by Craig Williams and accepted the knock as part and parcel of racing.
“I can understand where they’re coming from, even though it was disappointing,” Childs said.
“I would love to have ridden Surprise Baby this campaign but it is what it is and you’ve just got to keep moving forward. That’s the game, isn’t it.”
Childs said his persistence paid off in gaining the ride on the Willie Mullins-trained Stratum Albion.
“I thought I was running out of time and then I got the phone call on Monday and I was definitely glad to take it,” Childs said.
Childs said he had spoken to Mullins’ travelling foreman, Dave Casey, about the ride a few weeks ago and again on Sunday as he knew they hadn’t booked a jockey.
“I let them know that I was still available and I was keen to ride him. A day later he rang me back and said that I’d got the ride,” Childs said.
Childs had watched Stratum Albion’s second in the Lonsdale Cup at York and thought he ran well.
“I thought it was a good run. He got back a bit but kept on working to the line,” Childs said.
“That was over 3200 metres as well so the trip shouldn’t worry him.”
Prior to that run, Stratum Albion had been contesting hurdle races which was what Mullins’ two-time Melbourne Cup placegetter Max Dynamite also did before before coming to Australia.
Max Dynamite finished second in the 2015 Melbourne and third in the 2017 renewal.
The stable will also be represented by seven-year-old mare True Self who finished down the track in the Caulfield Cup.
Last year True Self won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Casey believes she’s in similar form.
“She was a little bit disappointing (at Caulfield). On the day barrier three looked a good draw but when the rain came the inside was the wrong place to be,” Casey said.
“She got to the front 200 metres out but the run petered out on the ground, which was shifting under her feet.”
