“Darren was a very good jockey, but he was very polished and soft on horses,” Dye decreed. Craig Williams, more Gauci than Dye, has the amount on Anamoe in an intriguing Cox Plate. Intriguing? Major hopes Zaaki and Verry Elleegant are coming off substandard performances. Sure, turf history is littered with the “forgive one bad run” reversals but, in these instances, I’m not buying it.

Still, how do the three-year-olds this season compare with the older brigade? Seeking a second opinion, Daniel O’Sullivan, Racing.com performance ratings authority, after the Anamoe’s Caulfield Guineas success, reasoned: “Anamoe will likely need to be at least one to two lengths better to win the Cox Plate, but he goes in with a terrific profile for a three-year-old with a competitive last start performance. Plenty of three-year-olds that have won or been placed in the Cox Plate went into the race rated lower than Anamoe.”

And on the Zaaki failure? “If you like something else then off his profile now, I certainly wouldn’t be afraid to bet against Zaaki,” O’Sullivan opined.

Certainly, the credentials of Mo’unga, a stablemate of Zaaki prepared by Anabel Neasham, are hard to fault. The four-year-old ran the dynamic Incentivise to .3 of a length at Flemington, and then a wide barrier was a major negative when he went down by under two lengths in the Epsom. Hugh Bowman and the four launching pad on Saturday should give him a smooth passage trailing Zaaki.

Zaaki had the wow factor before his defeat ($1.28) recently under Williams in the Caulfield Stakes, but the navigator has a previous success in the Cox Plate on Pinker Pinker (2011). Williams jumped Pinker Pinker from 11 and Anamoe has drawn 10.

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Barriers currently play a bigger role than they did in Dye’s day and are a strong point with the highly talented New Zealander, Entriviere, in The Invitation. Entrivieve was a tremendous third last start in the Gold Pendant at Rosehill that carried “gate (9) a major minus” by “Winning Post”. If the emergencies come out she jumps from the same alley.

The hardest for her to beat is Icebath, a horror memory if you backed her in the Epsom, too. Alas, Icebath begins from 13.

Dye would handle Entriviere like a good thing, dictate a position and not be dictated to. Incidentally, following the last start defeat the mare barrier trialled at Randwick in a heat against Classique Legend and was equally impressive.

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