Everest-winning hoop Chad Schofield will be the new rider for Skyhook in the $10 million Golden Eagle after Kerrin McEvoy was unsuccessful in his appeal against a whip suspension.
McEvoy was outed for eight meetings for the whip infringement in Wednesday’s Geelong Cup, ruling him out of this Saturday’s Golden Eagle (1500m) program at Randwick.
Skyhook’s co-trainer Gerald Ryan said he was disappointed for McEvoy, who has ridden Skyhook in 10 of his 16 starts, but pleasantly surprised to pick up a jockey of Schofield’s calibre at short notice.
“You move on, but I just feel sorry for Kerrin,” Ryan said.
“He’s done a heap of work with him and knows him like the back of his hand.
“The two jockeys it came down to were either Ethan Brown or Chad. It went Chad’s way because he can have a sit on him on Tuesday morning, and I’ve known Chad since he started. I gave him one of his first rides at Kembla.”
Skyhook shares the third line of Golden Eagle markets at $8, behind only dominant $1.80 favourite Sheza Alibi, and Beiwacht ($6).
The Ryan and Sterling Alexiou-trained entire has been in superb form this spring, stringing together a brace of Group 2 victories to start his campaign before finishing runner-up to Apocalyptic in the Silver Eagle (1300m) when he was coming back 200m in journey.
The four-year-old pleased the team with his work on Saturday morning and will have a final serious gallop on Tuesday to round out his preparations.
Ryan is confident Skyhook couldn’t be any better, and has no concerns over track conditions, although he’d like a midfield draw.
“I wouldn’t like to see him drawn inside three. I wouldn’t like to see him drawn eighteen either, but he does have a habit of drawing the outside gate,” Ryan said.
“Track conditions won’t worry me. He’s two from two on heavy tracks and he’s just as effective on dry tracks.”
Glen Boss is the only jockey to have claimed the rich Everest-Golden Eagle double in the same season, capturing the sprint in 2019 aboard Yes Yes Yes and that year’s Golden Eagle on Kolding.
