The Sydney Morning Herald
Brown pledges trophy to Stathi
Steve Butler and Andrew Eddy
October 23, 2010
COREY BROWN has revealed his emotional vow to bury his Cox Plate trophy with his mate Stathi Katsidis next Tuesday if he wins today's great race aboard Shoot Out at Moonee Valley.
The reigning Melbourne Cup winner said replacing Katsidis, who was found dead in his Brisbane home on Tuesday, on Shoot Out had delivered him the most emotionally testing ride in his roller-coaster career.
Brown said the ''ordinary circumstances'' had brought back vivid memories of the only time he was ever happy to run second in a race, when runner-up with Mr Prudent to Media Puzzle and Damien Oliver just days after the death of the West Australian jockey's brother, Jason.
''My wife and I were talking about the Cox Plate at home, and I told her if I won the Cox Plate, that plate will be going in with him because it's not rightfully mine,'' an emotional Brown said. ''It's rightfully Stathi's if we win, and I'll be out there doing the best job I can. If it comes off, it will be an added bonus.''
Brown also angrily hit out at claims Katsidis had not overcome his admitted past obsessions with drugs and alcohol, saying his record as the rider with the most wins in Australia last season had been ample proof.
Brown was chosen on Tuesday evening to partner the four-year-old in the $3 million race following the death of Katsidis. He will also wear the popular jockey's silks, after a request from Katsidis's fiancee Melissa Jackson. He and the other nine riders in the race will wear black armbands as a tribute to the 31-year-old.
Millions of people watched Brown win last year's Melbourne Cup on Shocking, but the jockey said yesterday he had never felt the public's glare or the pressure of expectation like he has this week.
''I've never gone into a race with so much pressure, and never been in a race like this with such a fancied, or spoken-about runner,'' he said.
''It's very ordinary circumstances to pick this ride up. There's a lot of pressure not only because I'm on a fancied runner but the way I picked it up. It's not good circumstances but it's business for me once I go out on the track. I know I've got the world on my shoulders, and Stathi will be there with, me but I've also got a job to do, and I'll go out and do it.''
Brown said he did not have to think twice about wearing Katsidis's silks. ''I got a phone call from Melissa, his fiancee, on Wednesday morning once they knew I was riding the horse, and [she] asked if I could wear Stathi's silks. Obviously, that's not going to be a problem. They got down to me this morning by express post.''
It will not be a simple job either. For while Brown has to attempt to beat Australasia's best horse So You Think, he has to do it on a horse he is yet to even sit on. But Brown is the ultimate professional, and has pored over tapes of the horse's 16 previous starts.
''I wouldn't say he [Shoot Out] is a press-button ride,'' he said. ''Watching his last two runs, he sometimes gets a bit aggressive mid-race.''
Brown said, with that in his mind, Shoot Out was a genuine contender. ''He's not brilliant in his turn of foot but he's tough, and he seems to keep wanting to be, there so that's what I like about him.''
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