![Chad Schofield celebrates Golden Eagle victory aboard Skyhook at Randwick, while favourite Sheza Alibi endured a luckless run under Luke Nolen. [Bradley Photos]](https://betsy.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2386143.jpg)
There is a lot to be said for making your own luck in racing and jockey Chad Schofield has become a master of it.
He has done it off the track getting group 1 winning rides on Ceolwulf and Tempted in the past couple of years and now Skyhook after Saturday’s Golden Eagle.
Schofield admitted he was the fill-in for a suspended Kerrin McEvoy in the $10 million Eagle, where he put Skyhook into the race and made his own luck and won.
Meanwhile, favourite punters were watching Luke Nolen and Sheza Alibi, who was the best-backed runner of the spring to start $1.50, have exactly the opposite back in the field.
“Just leave it blank [the stewards report],” Nolen said to stewards after being asked to describe what was a horror show from the top of the straight to the winning post.
Sheza Alibi had become awkwardly placed midfield one-off as the leader charged along at record pace.
No luck was a generous description of what happen to the star.
“I just never got clear,” Nolen said. “I thought [Foreign Monarch, which was to his outside] would came out and I’ll get a run, but he never did that.
“I had nowhere to go, which can happen in big fields.”
Sheza Alibi never got the chance to change out of first gear, let alone getting into overdrive and finished 11th.
Trainer Peter Moody watched the grim replay and could only be frustrated.
“Everywhere she went Muncey’s horse [Foreign Monarch] was in the road,” Moody said. “You can’t jump over the top of them.
“What can you do that’s racing sometimes.”
Moody and his jockey would have been happy with Sheza Alibi’s spot at the 600m mark by the 400m; it cursed, and by the 300m dreams of victory in the $10 million race were over.
“In the end I would have been better drawing 15 rather than [gate] 5,” Nolen said. “The only way I would have been a chance was to loop them, but there so much horse around me I just couldn’t get out.
“It’s not what you want in a $10 million race.”
Back to the front of the race, Schofield would eventually get a six-meeting suspension for careless riding at 1200m when he crossed into perfect position in front of Attica.
Skyhook was poised to strike as leader Beiwacht kicked, he would hang on for third. Skyhook came with outsider Decorum and got his head down on the post to win.
“We drew really wide. I always thought we could end up one-out, one-back,” Schofield said. “That is what I told the owners and trainer pre-race. When Regal Award didn’t jump like he can, I rolled across outside the leader.
“Obviously when Apocalyptic went around, that gave me the perfect bit of cover. My horse dropped the bridle and found the most beautiful rhythm.
“I waited as long as I could, and he is so game. I felt like Decorum had us a couple of times, but my horse pinned his ears back and was in for the fight.”
