Think of Private Eye as Brenton Avdulla’s unfinished symphony in three parts, which could come to a crescendo in The Everest at Randwick on Saturday.
It has been an on-again, off-again affair for Private Eye and Avdulla over the past couple of years, with as many wins as disappointments.
Brenton Avdulla will look for the perfect ending in The Everest after years after trails and tribulations on Private Eye.Credit:Getty
But such is the strength of Avdulla’s connection with the late-surging galloper that trainer Joe Pride had no hesitation turning to him when Private Eye got a late call-up from Inglis for The Everest last week.
“You need someone who knows the horse with Private Eye, and Brenton knows him as well as anyone – good and bad,” Pride said. “He has been on and off him a few times for different reasons and I still remember when he fell last year and broke his neck, because he was going to be our jockey for Private Eye [in the next race]. That was tough. Private Eye is a horse you need to time your charge with and Brenton is very good at that.”
Avdulla won a couple of early races on Private Eye when he was beginning to show his talent but things haven’t often gone well for the partnership since.
Although they won the Queensland Guineas in 2021 together, there has been a lot of heartache along the way, most recently when Private Eye was blocked for much of the straight when he flew home for second behind Alligator Blood in the Stradbroke in June.
“He has just been one of those horses for me,” Avdulla said. “He is already a group 1 winner and I was very stiff not to win the Stradbroke on him. He should have won that day, but you have to move on.
“After I had won a couple on him early on, I planned to do two weeks’ quarantine during covid to ride him in the Magic Millions Guineas a couple of years ago – because he is that good – and he didn’t get a run.
“Then Regan [Bayliss] got on him before I got back on him and won the Queensland Guineas on him. That was a good day.”
The next part of the story was tougher still, with Avdulla, wearing a neck brace following his fall, forced to watch on from home as Bayliss steered him to victory in last year’s Epsom.
“I had been booked for the prep when he won the Epsom, but I fell and lost him again,” Avdulla said. “I remember being on the ground and thinking, ‘I hope I’m right to ride Private Eye in the Epsom’.”
But the fall, and its consequences, were worse than Avdulla thought and it took six months for him to return to the saddle. Since then, he has been one of the best jockeys in the land.
He won the group 1 Surround Stakes on Hinged on one of first days back in February and has backed that up with successes in the Golden Slipper and the Epsom.
But once again there was disappointment with Private Eye when he was beaten in the Stradbroke, and again, only a week ago, when Pride chose to run him in Melbourne.
“I was booked in Sydney and he went to Melbourne and won [the Gilgai Stakes] and won very well,” Avdulla said. “If not for that, I probably don’t get to ride him in The Everest.
“He probably owes me a bit, but that could all be repaid on Saturday. He is the right type of horse for the race, but he needs the track to improve to let him show his best.”
