Last year’s Melbourne Cup winning jockey Corey Brown has been booked to ride Queensland galloper Shoot Out in the 2010 Cox Plate this Saturday after regular rider Stathi Katsidis sadly passed away yesterday.
In a shock that left the racing community shattered, champion Brisbane jockey Katsidis was found dead in his home yesterday morning.
Stating he would not chase the ride under the circumstances, Brown was asked by Shoot Out’s trainer John Wallace to take the mount in Saturday’s $3 million Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley.
A friend of Katsidis’, Brown accepted saying the ride would be in his honour.
Brown is also set to ride High Chaparral four-year-old Shoot Out in the Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) on October 30 at Flemington’s Victoria Derby Day and will get first refusal for the 2010 Melbourne Cup if Shoot Out makes the field.
On Saturday Shoot Out is set to jump from barrier nine in the Cox Plate field and is currently paying $12 to win through SportsBet, third elect behind hot favourite So You Think and the Gai Waterhouse-trained More Joyous.
