Tommy Berry wants to farewell Sydney racing at Randwick on Saturday the right way. The winning way.
Ideally it would be taking the feature on Inference in the Warwick Stakes but he knows that is a long shot.
Berry, suspended at Canterbury on Wednesday, will take up a riding contract with John Moore in Hong Kong from the beginning of the new season next month, but his final day in Sydney is filled with rides for familiar faces.
Inference provides a final ride for Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes for whom Berry has been stable rider in the past couple of years, sharing group 1 success with Inference and more notably Chautauqua. It would give him perfect closure on this chapter in Australia.
However, Inference faces Winx, a mountain which has not been conquered in more than two years.
"John Hawkes has taught me so much about racing and he was the one I turned to when I was making the final decision to go to Hong Kong," Berry said. "I went there for dinner and within five minutes he told me to go.
"I can always come back. John said they will always support me and have right up to my final day.
"If Inference could do the improbable and beat Winx it would be a great way to leave. It probably won't happen but I think I have a good book other than him to finish up with."
Berry will be back. Like many ex-pat jockeys he will fly in for group 1 rides and he already has offers in the Golden Rose, but a Hong Kong gig full-time has been a box he has wanted to tick for a number of years.
It is fitting that Berry will ride Francesco for Mark Newnham, who guided his early career as a colleague in the provincial jockeys room and then as foreman for Gai Waterhouse. He also rides Gold Standard in the Up And Coming Stakes for the first lady of racing and Adrian Bott. But it is Sires winner Invader that looks his best ride.
Invader returns in the Show County Quality, where those at the bottom of weights look to dominate.
"I went and rode him the other morning and he gave a good feel and confidence," Berry said. "He has a light weight and I think he is in for a good preparation."
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