Patrick Carbery: How to win the Railway

DIGBY BEACHAMThe West Australian

It's always nice to go into a big race with a live hope and I had a lot of confidence in Gilded Venom last year. Steve Wallace was happy with the horse. He said the horse had worked terrible and the horse always worked terrible. I told him if the horse started working well, that was the time to start getting worried.

I must admit I was a little bit concerned because of the start before when he had a hard run in the (RJ) Peters. He said if anything the horse had come on since that run, which was pleasing.


At Ascot the 1600m sees you come out of the chute and it's important that, if your horse begins well, you get in position A, where you planned to be. Gilded Venom got away clean and lobbed into a nice spot. The first part of it went perfect. He was travelling sweet and lobbed into a nice spot heading on to the course proper. Usually, the Railway is a hard-run race and getting on to the course proper everyone is jostling for the best possible position. Once my horse jumped well, I was happy with the way he was travelling and was able to hold my position no worries. I was able to get to one off the fence and was travelling beautiful. You don't want to be on the rail.

I have won the Railway twice and both times I was in a nice flowing lane out of trouble. I think too many people in WA - jockeys, owners, trainers - all want to get close to the fence, but there is nothing worse going to the line when you're held up or at the 600m - you can't be moving forward because of traffic. You don't necessarily have to be on the fence or one-off, as long as you've got cover. If you are following the right horse, it's probably near-on the spot to be.


Everything was still going good at this stage. You want to be travelling nice without overdoing it.

Even though they will still be going strong at this stage, they look to try to back off the speed a bit to give the leaders a breather. This is when Blake Shinn backed off the speed on Bank Robber and they did stack up a bit down the back straight. My horse got travelling a little bit keen and I was always mindful of the fact that Steve told me the horse is a big-striding horse and needs room. Even though I was one off the fence outside Tarzi, I was happy with where I was. But the pace was backing off a little bit too much and I was mindful of the fact that I was one off the fence and may have been in a position I didn't want to be in at a later stage. I was a little bit wary of that without doing anything too drastic.


As long as you are following a horse who is going to bring you into the race, it is no drama. I have no concern about being three deep with cover. A lot of horses might have good form but still collapse in front of you. That is out of your control. They might start to pick up a little bit of speed, even though the leader might try to back off. The horse running second or third might start to apply a bit more pressure to make it a bit more genuine.


I was happy, although he was still probably travelling a little bit too keen. He was a touch strong but there were other horses in the race who were going harder than him. Not just in the Railway, but in all big races you need everything to be spot on. It's hard to win a race like the Railway when everything is perfect, let alone if there is any little hiccup. Everything needs to be 100 per cent.


Around this stage I was able to get on to Fishy's (Jason Whiting's) back. Grand Nirvana went forward and Fishy's horse (Famous Roman) was pulling and he let it stride around me and I thought "how good is this". It was the perfect result. I didn't want to be one off the fence. He was going forward and Sniper's Bullet was pocketed on the fence and just didn't look like he was going anywhere. I was rapt that I was getting a great cart into the race. I'm just thinking "this is working out too good".

People say you are three wide from the half-mile, but Sniper's Bullet got held up and got beat by a head. It could have been the difference between him winning and losing.

I thought Famous Roman had had a pretty tough run and there was a good chance I would get over the top of him, as opposed to the previous week when I had a tough run and he got over the top of me. I was keeping him balanced, he was in the three- wide lane still but was just trotting. I remember striding forward and thinking "we're going a treat here, but be patient, hold on, just relax".

Approaching home turn

Right here at the 400m I'm thinking "they have to be good to beat him today, he's cruising". I haven't even flinched on him. I probably gave him a slap about here just to make sure he was travelling. Steve always said that he was a lazy horse and needed a bit of winding up.

Entering home straight

I was just starting to work off the bridle now. I hadn't really gone for him, but because he's a big horse I just wanted to let him get to his top before I went for him. At the furlong, everything was going perfect. I pulled to the outside of Fishy's horse and started to put the pedal to the metal and he started to hit top gear. You don't want to mock yourself, but I only just started to feel for the whip at the 200m and I know how much he'd respond because he was a bit of a lazy bugger and he had responded to it in the other races I'd ridden him in. We were starting to claim them and I was hoping nothing was getting through the middle, or coming along the fence to grab me.


I thought we were going to win, but then I saw something coming through which happened to be Sniper's Bullet, which was inside me from about the 700m. Being an Eastern States horse, a Stradbroke winner, he was well-credentialled and he started to get to Snake (Gilded Venom), but when I really asked him for everything he had he stuck his head out and kept lifting. We only won by a head, but I never thought we wouldn't win. It helps when you have a genuine horse under you who has been trained to the minute.

Returning to scale

It's awesome. The best part is when you're family is here. Mum and dad came. They weren't going to come, but I said to dad "if this horse wins, you'll be kicking yourself". Even that morning he wasn't that keen and I rang up mum without dad knowing and said "make sure dad goes, just get him to the races for god's sake".

I knew they were there before the race because they were on the fence and have been my biggest supporters. Without dad's influence, I wouldn't be a jockey, even though I'm short and light. He used to take me to the races when I was six and has always had a share in horses. To see him on the fence - it almost makes me cry now thinking about it. He was crying too and I've only seen the old man cry a couple of times.

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