Jigsaw will have to overcome the widest gate if he is to claim the Eye Liner Stakes at Ipswich.
Victorian trainer Cindy Alderson and jockey Vlad Duric will turn back the clock when they team with Jigsaw in one of the feature races at Ipswich.
Duric and Jigsaw will have to overcome the widest gate in the Listed Eye Liner Stakes (1350m) on Saturday if they are to give Alderson her maiden win in Queensland.
Alderson, when training with her father Colin Anderson, had a successful partnership with Duric which dates back even further before she joined the family training ticket.
“Vlad rode for us a lot in the old days,” Alderson said.
“He won a Hong Kong Jockey Club Plate on a horse called Flash Trick after he had got beaten in the (2007) Melbourne Cup when he was on the favourite Master O’Reilly.
“I thought he would be petulant, but he rode it really well.
“He rode for us a lot when he was an apprentice and around Cranbourne and when he came back from his first stint in Singapore, but he hasn’t ridden for me this time.
“He’s riding in great form and seems really motivated and enjoying his life up there and I’m sure he’ll give Jigsaw a good ride.”
The last ride Duric had for Colin and Cindy Alderson was in June 2015 with their last winner together being 10 months earlier at Geelong.
Since branching out on her own in the 2015-16 season, Duric has not ridden for Alderson as it also coincided with the time the jockey returned to Singapore for another successful stint before he returned to Australia in March to set himself up in Brisbane.
Alderson said the outside draw on Saturday made it a tricky assignment for Jigsaw who steps out to his longest trip after 28 starts.
“He’s been unlucky like that,” Alderson said of the draw.
“I don’t think they like the Victorian’s, but he’s really well and I thought he ran a super race last start, one of his career best races, giving weight to those horses as well.
“He’s got the big weight again, on a track that favours horses that can get on the speed, which he can do if he draws a gate.
“I spoke to Vlad. He galloped him on Tuesday and he’s happy with him and the rest is up to him.”
Jigsaw has won nine of his 28 starts and was a last start third in the Group 2 Morton Cup (1200m) at Eagle Farm on June 8.
“The idea was to give him an opportunity to get out over a trip and this looks the right race to do it in,” Alderson said.
