With a clean break today, not only at the gates but smooth early to avoid crossover pressure from the opposition then a trouble-free run, Masked Crusader, under Tommy Berry, should prove too good but that entails ifs and buts.

Slow out by two lengths was a disaster last start in his narrow defeat in The Everest.

“He was standing beautiful then 30 seconds from the jump one inside started to play up and he went back on his bum,” Jeffs recalled.

Thus Berry will get the option of “tail ‘im” from a barrier attendant who will lift the horse’s tail to help him commence if required. Hands on ears are also used to pacify waywardness in the gates while the lug can also be nibbled by those who mount the side of the stalls for the pacification of cantankerous behaviour.

Barrier brumbies can benefit from the Monty Roberts blanket, applied because “some horses become claustrophobic and unruly”. The blanket, therefore, is to protect the ‘vulnerable’ areas of the horse from unwanted brushing or bumping against the starting stalls. A rope is attached to a ring at the rear of the blanket, so that it can be pulled off by a handler when the stalls open.

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Regarding Masked Invader, Jeffs said he wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to suggest the blanket to the Hawkes team, under captain John. A wise decision leaving the exit in the hands of Berry while the experienced fingers of Glen Boss will be applied to Artorius, who lost any chance at the start of the Caulfield Guineas (1600 metres) recently following the same situation in the Golden Rose at
Rosehill previously.

Coming back to 1200 metres is a query for Artorius but at his last attempt over the distance the colt was a close second in the McNeil at Caulfield in August carrying a Winning Post comment “should’ve won”.

No doubt Artorius and Masked Crusader have prompted supporters towards strong drink about which Behan was an expert.

“I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don’t respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer,” he once said.

Cheers to that but let’s add reverence for favoured horses jumping clean.

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