Leading jockey Craig Williams admits that the decision to ride the unbeaten Catchy in Saturday week's $1.5 million Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield was one of the most difficult choices of his decorated career.
Williams had the choice of five of the top hopes in Victoria's most important two-year-old race, but has elected to ride the David Hayes-trained youngster.
![Craig Williams has picked his mount.](/web/20170405191052im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/5/l/m/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gubh2d.png/1486957151532.jpg)
Williams' choice of Catchy means the two other strong rides in the race, Jukebox and Property, are now without riders.
However, in the case of Property, who is owned by Hong Kong interests, a leading international jockey is likely to take the mount.
Williams said that arriving at a final decision for Catchy was "extremely difficult".
Williams, who rode both Blue Diamond Prelude winners and one of the two Preview winners on the way to Saturday week's two-year-old event, said the difficulty arose not just from the ability of the horses, but also the stables and owners involved in the big race.
"They are all in fabulous form and they've all got an excellent racing style and it seemed every time they went to the races they won," Williams said.
"And when they came home they thrived and licked the bin out. It was a wonderful position to be in but at the same time I had to be totally sure the horse I was riding was the way to go."
Having built up relationships with many of the owners and trainers of the horses involved, Williams said he had to put that aside when making his decision.
"There are some good friends and some very good trainers involved but at the end of the day Catchy is the race favourite, she is unbeaten and she's a very easy filly to ride," he said.
"Two-year-old races like this are not that easy. They can go shin sore one minute, they can go off their feed or they could just lose form. When they're this young they're very unpredictable.
"I've just got to hope that Catchy remains in one piece in the next fortnight. I didn't have the luxury of waiting for the barrier draw but all of these owners and trainers have been sensationally patient, but they all needed an answer.
"And an interesting part about all of the rides I was offered, that they're all going to make into high-class three-year-olds so I could well be reunited with them down the track," he said.
The owners of Formality and Tulip, who are also prepared by David Hayes, elected to engage jockeys on Saturday night before waiting for Williams' final decision.
Williams said Catchy reminds him of outstanding race mare Miss Finland.
Property, whose connections will have to pay a $55,000 late entry fee for the Blue Diamond, is favoured to have world champion rider Joao Moreira fly in from Hong Kong to take the mount on the colt.
Ryan Moore will also come to Australia to ride Formality, another unbeaten filly coming into Saturday week's event.