Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
A backdated COVID-19 announcement from Queensland Health declared anyone who has been in the local government areas of Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick and the City Of Sydney since June 11 and is currently in Queensland will need to go into lockdown.
That ruled out the participation of leading jockeys including James McDonald, Kerrin McEvoy, Hugh Bowman, Rachel King and Tommy Berry, who flew back to Sydney on Friday ahead of the 1am AEST Saturday morning lockdown deadline.
Andrew Mallyon has replaced James McDonald on Odeum (Written Tycoon) in the Tiara and Larry Cassidy and Mark Du Plessis will ride the Chris Waller-trained pair of Nudge (Fastnet Rock) and Subpoenaed (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}) in the feature event, although it wasn't confirmed on Friday evening which mounts they will take.
Baylee Nothdurft rides Flit (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}) and Ryan Maloney picked up the mount on Savatiano (Street Cry {Ire}) while Justin Huxtable will take the reins on Rocha Clock (Pierro).
Ryan Wiggins was on Friday evening understood to be the frontrunner for the ride on Mizzy (Zoustar).
Baylee Nothdurft will partner Flit
The visiting Sydney jockeys all returned negative COVID-19 tests on their arrival in Brisbane, but Queensland Health’s decision still ruled them out of action.
“Racing Queensland advises that anyone who has been in the NSW LGAs of Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick or the City Of Sydney since June 11, 2021 is no longer permitted on a licensed Queensland training or racing venue,” Racing Queensland said in a statement.
“Following tighter restrictions imposed by the NSW Government earlier today (Friday), Queensland Health has decreed that anyone currently in Queensland, who has visited any of the four LGAs since June 11, must follow the same lockdown rules in NSW.”
