The usual jockey merry-go-round ahead of a Group 1 race at Flemington has landed Brett Prebble the ride on Profiteer in the Lightning Stakes.
Jamie Kah was originally booked for the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr-trained three-year-old in the 1000m dash up the Flemington straight, but she has switched to Nature Strip on whom she won the Group 1 race 12 months ago.
Nature Strip’s regular rider James McDonald has elected to go with the Chris Waller-trained stablemate Home Affairs.
It has all worked in Prebble’s favour after heading to Cranbourne trials on Monday to put the son of Capitalist through his paces over 800m.
Profiteer registered an easy win, breaking 45 seconds in the process, after taking a sit early in the heat.
“They’ve put in a bit of work into him getting him to take a sit,” Prebble told RSN.
“It was a bit of a juggle on him early because he’s got a bit of a soft mouth on him, but once he realised what he had to do, he dropped the bit, did it nice and came through without any pressure at all.
“He gave me a really nice feel and it’s a perfect race where he’ll be able to do things right.
“It will be a high-pressure race having speed horses in it and he’ll get that opportunity to get it right on the day.
“He’ll get a backside and he’ll settle well and when he conserves that energy, he can give a good performance and on what I felt yesterday, he can run a really nice race.”
Profiteer has not raced since scoring over the Lightning course and distance on Melbourne Cup Day.
Besides Nature Strip and Home Affair, Eduardo, Gytrash and Masked Crusader are all expected to line up in the eagerly anticipated sprint.