3 minute read
Leading country jockey Ben Looker has already nailed one winner in this year’s Newhaven Park Country Championships series and believes he couldn’t be better placed to double his tally than on Ezekeil at Tamworth on Sunday.
The Cody Morgan-trained Ezekeil is the $7 favourite with TAB Fixed Odds to win the $500,000 Newhaven Park Country Championships Final at Randwick on April 1 and as such is bound to start at short odds in the $150,000 H&NWRA Country Championships on his home track.
Ezekeil has always shown promise, but has taken his form to a whole new level at his last two runs with runaway wins in the Armidale Newmarket over 1100 metres and the Magic Millions Country Cup over 1200 at Gold Coast.
Looker says Morgan told him ahead of the Armidale race, in which Looker partnered Ezekeil, that he believed he had found the key to the four-year-old gelding and he has been proved right.
"He's in this race at Tamworth with a big, big chance," Looker said.
"What he's done at his last two starts gives you plenty of confidence. He couldn't have been any more impressive. He's got the form on the board and he's the one they've got to beat.
"I've ridden a lot for Cody over the years. He rang me leading up to Armidale Cup day and said 'I've got a horse I think can gallop' for the sprint race.
"Ezekeil had been a little disappointing leading up to that run, but Cody assured me he'd worked out that how to get him going was to keep his races spaced and not give him too hard a time between races.
"The thing I liked about him was the way he really put them away over the last furlong in those two races.
"Cody's got him spot on and in a Country Championships heat like this you want to be riding for a trainer like Cody Morgan. He's always got his horses 100 per cent ready to go, whether it's Ezekeil or the three or four others he'll have in the race.
"He's a master at getting his horses to perform at their best on the big days."
Star Melbourne jockey Jamie Kah rode Ezekeil in the Gold Coast race, which carried $500,000 in prizemoney and ballooned Ezekeil's career earnings out to $374,810 with the first prize of $292,000.
Looker, who is riding in great form to be third on the overall NSW jockeys' premiership this season and second in the country division, won the NRRA Country Championships Qualifier on Bean Foggy at Coffs Harbour on Saturday.
He won both the MNCRA qualifier and Country Championships final on Victorem for Port Macquarie trainer Jenny Graham in 2018.
"To get on a horse like Victorem to win the qualifier was a huge thrill," he said. "I was so happy, not just for myself but also for Jenny who's been a great supporter of mine.
"Then to retain the ride in the final was a massive thrill. He was super that day, he won easily. It was my biggest thrill in racing."
Looker's wife, Sky Racing form analyst and commentator Priscilla Looker, is expecting their second child in a fortnight.
"It's a life-changing period I'm going right through right now, with the family and as a jockey," he said.
"Exciting, a bit nerve-wracking. It's going to be great when the new baby comes along and little Orlando can be a big brother.
"And with the Country Championships on I'm getting the opportunity to ride some nice horses in the qualifiers, like Ezekeil. I'm looking forward to getting back on him on Sunday."
