Mum Gai has a chance at Cox Plate joy

By Megan Neil

MELBOURNE, Oct 22 AAP - Such is the hype surrounding defending Cox Plate champion So You Think, even bookmaker Tom Waterhouse didn't think his mum had a shot with More Joyous.

He's now changed his tune, though Gai Waterhouse didn't reveal if it was after a heart-to-heart with her.

"Even Tom, my darling son, who's been speaking out of turn I can see of late, said: `Gosh, you've got a good chance tomorrow Mum'," the Sydney trainer said.

"And Singo (John Singleton, owner-breeder of More Joyous) at long last is resigned to the fact win, lose or draw he's going to be here, because he wasn't a starter until just recently."

Bookies believe So You Think is a certainty to win back-to-back Cox Plates, making the four-year-old entire the shortest-priced Cox favourite in more than 40 years.

Tom Waterhouse two days ago declared the Bart Cummings-trained So You Think a freak and the best Australian racehorse he'd seen.

"Mum has got the Cox Plate second favourite in More Joyous but, as much as it pains me to say it, she's racing for second place because I can't see So You Think getting rolled," he said on Wednesday.

But Gai Waterhouse is adamant that her mare, who has won eight races in a row, has the class to take out Australia's weight-for-age championship.

"She's very strong, she's very focused and she's got an amazing will to win," the trainer told reporters at Moonee Valley on Friday.

Waterhouse suggests So You Think - who won last year's Cox Plate at only his fifth start - may have had a somewhat easy run so far.

"He hasn't had a tough run yet. He's won them easily," she said.

"He might have won them easily because he's so damn good, but he might also have just been having cushies, cushy wins.

"It won't be cushy tomorrow because you know all the horses are in it.

"You don't think Mark Kavanagh's coming here just for the day out, do you?

"You don't think they've brought the horse from New Zealand just for the trip across the Tasman?

"Every horse here intends to win the prize. It's a tough race, it really is."

The field seeking to unseat So You Think includes the Kavanagh-trained Whobegotyou and New Zealand trainer Jeff Lynds' Wall Street. But the sentimental favourite is Shoot Out.

Corey Brown will ride the John Wallace-trained Shoot Out on Saturday, following the sudden death of his regular rider Stathi Katsidis in Brisbane on Tuesday.

Brown will wear Katsidis' riding silks, which arrived in Melbourne via express post on Friday morning, in the $3 million race at the request of Katsidis' fiancee Melissa Jackson.

"I'll have Stathi's silks on and, hopefully, will do him proud," he said.

Saturday will be the first time Brown has been aboard Shoot Out.

"It's not good circumstances, but that's business for me once I go on to the track," Brown said.

"I know I've got sort of 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 and do it."

So You Think's jockey Steven Arnold is confident his horse will be first across the line.

"If he gets a good clear run, if we have normal luck in running ... I never like cheering in the run, but he'll be hard to beat."