Star jockey Jamie Kah gets the plaudits most weeks but her fiance Clayton Douglas is set to relish his time in the limelight during the three-day carnival at Warrnambool this week.
Both Kah and Douglas will be in action at Warrnambool but the couple will not clash in a race.
Douglas has ridden with plenty of success on the flat but will stick to the jumps program with six rides over the three days.
“It’s my turn to shine,” Douglas joked.
Douglas will attempt to book a place in Warrnambool folklore with another win on marvel Gold Medals in Thursday’s Grand Annual Steeplechase. The pair won in 2018 before running second in each of the last two years.
“It’s a pretty big thing for all the team at (trainer) Symon Wilde’s to do all the hard work to get him to the race. Four years in a row, it’s a great effort,” Douglas said.
“He’s an amazing old horse. He’s going to front up in really good shape on Thursday. It should be great.”
Douglas has found out exactly how hard it is to get horses for big races since taking out his own training licence.
He said Wilde had done an amazing job to get the 11-year-old Gold Medals to race at his ninth Warrnambool Carnival.
“I had a bit of an idea how hard it was but it’s not easy getting a horse to a race like that, especially if something goes wrong, but he’s obviously a very sound horse and tough,” Douglas said.
The dual licence holder has a chance to notch his biggest win as a trainer when Douglas rides The Midnight Shift in Wednesday’s Galleywood Hurdle.
A client of the stable bought The Midnight Shift after the gelding won a major hurdle race in New Zealand last year. Douglas has had The Midnight Shift since November last year.
“He’s a nice horse in really good shape. He won a Hawkes Bay Hurdle in New Zealand so he’s a horse that has got good ability over the jumps,” Douglas said.
“He only got a kilo over the minimum so he’s in very well at the weights for the Galleywood, probably because he hasn’t earned a lot of prizemoney.
“I’m pretty confident he’ll run a really good race.”
TAB.com.au has The Midnight Shift at $14 in Galleywood Hurdle betting.
Originally published as Clayton Douglas to step out of fiancee Jamie Kah’s shadow for a week at Warrnambool
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