Stackhouse rides outsider The Chosen One (NZ) (Savabeel) in Saturday's $5 million handicap for Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman, and while the ex-pat Kiwi is still searching for that first Group 1 win after 13 years in the saddle, he is in the best big-race form of his career.
Last Saturday, Stackhouse rode Chapada (Bullet Train {GB}) to victory in the G2 Herbert Power S., in what was the first Group 2 success of his career, and while the Michael Moroney stayer's drop to 50.5kg in the Cup on Saturday means he is unable to take the ride, he has been able to get aboard The Chosen One, who was the last horse to make the field when final acceptances were taken on Wednesday.
That was Stackhouse's fourth stakes win of the season so far, while, in a measure in the rise of opportunities that 2020/21 has presented for the 30-year-old, he also rode in three Group 1 races on the Caulfield card, with a best finish of fourth on Crosshaven (Smart Missile) in the Caulfield Guineas.
"It's great for the confidence, you get the chance to step up to the next level, and you know you belong as a jockey in those races. You are competing against those other top jockeys, and you know you are against the best," Stackhouse told TDN AusNZ.
"It's great for the confidence, you get the chance to step up to the next level, and you know you belong as a jockey in those races." - Daniel Stackhouse
"It’s important to be able to ride those races week in and week out to get that confidence up."
Saturday will be the ninth Group 1 race which Stackhouse has ridden in this season, already a career-high just three months into the new campaign. He finished third on So Si Bon (So You Think {NZ}) in the G1 Makybe Diva S., one of four times he has been placed in his 28 previous Group 1 rides.
The desire for that breakthrough Group 1 success burns brightly within Stackhouse.
"It’s something I definitely want to have on my CV. It’s something I work hard for to try and achieve," he said.
Stackhouse will partner The Chosen One (NZ) in the G1 Stella Artois Caulfield Cup (pink cap)
From Canterbury to Caulfield
Stackhouse learned his horsemanship through showjumping before he rode trackwork for Canterbury trainers Sharon and Ricky Donnelly to start out his career. He worked for Mark Walker at Matamata for some time but his weight became an issue and he returned to work with Pam Gerard at Ashburton, primarily as a jumps jockey.
Having got his weight back under control, he then made a considerable splash as an apprentice on the flat in the South Island, outriding his claim. He arrived in Australia in 2011 as a 20-year-old to take up a position with Peter Moody in Victoria.
He made an immediate impression, riding 92 winners in his first full season, 28 of them for Moody, and was then third in his first Australian Group 1 ride aboard the Moody-trained Golden Archer in the G1 Lightning S. and second in the G1 Schweppes Oaks aboard stablemate Grand Daughter (Redoute's Choice).
Stackhouse continued to ride winners consistently, but when Moody suddenly stepped away from training in 2016, the jockey admits the path to success became that little bit more unclear.
Stackhouse admitted to feeling a bit lost when Peter Moody stopped training
"I was pretty new and pretty raw when I first came over from the South Island of New Zealand. It's not big racing over there and I just wanted to do as well as I could. I was lucky enough to come and ride for Peter Moody, but I did get a bit lost when Peter stopped training. It took me a while to find my feet again," he said.
The winners kept coming, but the opportunities to ride in the big races dried up. Stackhouse had a stint in Mauritius in 2018, and won a locally classified Group 1 race, but that desire to get back on the big stage was always there.
Have saddle, will travel
At the start of the 2019/20 season, he took a decision to prove himself again to local trainers through sheer hard work, hitting the road to ride wherever he could in order to prove himself worthy of being considered among the best jockeys in Victoria.
"It’s a very tough and competitive environment in Victoria. You see at these Saturday meetings in the country, there are five or six Group 1 jockeys riding," he said.
"It’s a very tough and competitive environment in Victoria. You see at these Saturday meetings in the country, there are five or six Group 1 jockeys riding." - Daniel Stackhouse
"I set out last season to really make a big go of being consistent and ride as much as I could to try and get myself to the level I am now. Having done that, I can now focus on these big occasions and better rides, and hopefully more opportunities will come from there."
Stackhouse rode in an Australian high 1134 races in 2019/20 and his 138 winners were enough to place him fourth in the Australian premiership and second in the all-Victorian premiership, behind Jye McNeil.
Just over 18.4 per cent of Stackhouse's rides last season were on metropolitan tracks, but as a measure of the opportunities he has created, that mark has lifted to 33 per cent so far in 2020/21.
Chosen path for Cup
While he would have loved to be on the in-form Chapada, he is happy to have secured the ride on The Chosen One, who while well beaten in the Herbert Power S. last week, did win that race with some authority last year before finishing ninth in the 2019 Caulfield Cup.
"My manager has been talking with them over the past couple of weeks. They made a call between myself and Luke Nolen," he said.
"It’s a bit of work to get down to the 53.5kg. But I have been working on my weight for the past couple of months, so I can take these opportunities. It’s only an extra half a kilo from last week, so it’s not too bad."
While the market has The Chosen One marked as one of the outsiders in the race, Stackhouse feels the 5-year-old can make an impression, especially after drawing well in barrier three.
Murray Baker
"Murray Baker does a fantastic job of getting these horses ready for these big occasions. He's drawn a good barrier for once, which will help him. I won't have to drag him all the way back from a bad barrier. He's got the blinkers back on, which might spark him back up a bit," he said.
"He's won at the track and distance which is a big plus. He won the Herbert Power last year really well and ran well in the Caulfield Cup as well. He just had a bad gate and had to go back and go around them.
"I spoke to Murray this morning. I went to Flemington and gave the horse a gallop. He gave me a really good feel. Murray talked me through a few things and agrees that from that gate we'll look to get him in the first eight, without being too close and look to hold a position."
If Stackhouse is looking for inspiration, he needn't look any further back than three years ago, when a fellow journeyman Kiwi, Cory Parish, caused a huge upset on the Lindsay Park-trained Boom Time (Flying Spur) in the 2017 Caulfield Cup.
