Jordan Childs may have been too young to remember much of champion Northerly‘s fighting Caulfield Cup win in 2002.
But he recalls watching from the couch at home a few years later when his father, Greg, won the race again, this time on Railings.
“That’s probably one of my earlier memories of Dad winning a bigger race,” Childs said.
On Saturday, 22-year-old Childs gets his first opportunity to join his father on the honour roll of winning jockeys in the time-honoured 2400m-handicap.
Childs won his first Group One race earlier this year at Caulfield on Written By in the Blue Diamond Stakes and has his first Caulfield Cup ride on the Mike Moroney-trained German import Sound Check.
Sound Check makes his Australian debut in Saturday’s $5 million race.
“I rode him on Tuesday morning at Flemington on the course proper and he’s a really nice type of horse,” Childs said.
“He was a bit of a casual worker and only did what he had to do but I think we won’t see the best of him until race day.”
Childs’ preparation for his first Caulfield Cup ride has included watching replays of Sound Check’s German performances.
The six-year-old has won seven of his 16 starts.
At his most recent start in August, Sound Check finished second to Caulfield Cup topweight Best Solution in the Group One Grosser Preis Von Berlin (2400m).
“I’ve had a look at a couple of his replays and he looks like he actually has a turn of foot which I think will suit Australian racing,” Childs said.
“The barrier (16) is probably just a little bit wider that what we would have hoped for but there’s nothing we can do about that so we’ll have to make it work.”
Want more racing news? Cups Betting delivers you the latest horse racing news from all the major thoroughbred cups and feature races.