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By Ray Hickson

The parallels between 2018 Country Championships Final winner Victorem and the exciting Bodhi Boy aren’t lost on jockey Ben Looker.

Ben Looker and Victorem after winning the 2018 Country Championships Final (Pic: Bradley Photos).

Bodhi Boy won his first race at Kempsey, as Victorem did, and he’ll also head into Sunday’s $150,000 Evergreen Turf Mid North Coast Country Championships (1200m) at Port Macquarie with three wins under his belt.

And, he’ll jump from a similar barrier.

Looker makes it clear he’s not comparing the two, given what Victorem went on to achieve, and he can only hope that Bodhi Boy proves as talented – but it wouldn’t surprise him either.

“Victorem was a natural from day dot whereas Bodhi Boy is still untapped,’’ Looker said.

“He’s a lovely looking animal and well bred, being by So You Think. You don’t really know where his ceiling is because he’s still learning what it’s all about.

“Hopefully he turns out to be the next Victorem, that’d be great.”

Victorem was a much more experienced horse, despite only having had four starts prior to the Country Championships, given he’d had a couple of preparations and was a TAB Highway winner before winning at Port Macquarie.

It’s that inexperience Looker is wary of but his raw ability has been on show as he’s scored three wins for trainer Lyndall Olson with increasing levels of dominance.

At his last start, at Port Macquarie, back on January 24 he had to cope with dropping to 1006m and absorbing pressure to hold the lead.

“When I rode him in his first start he was big and sweaty and fought me the majority of the time I was on him,’’ he said.

“He’s still learning how to change legs, his last couple of starts he’s been on the same leg up the running. Just those little things that once he puts them together he could go to another level.

“He’s a nice horse, I’ve got no doubt about that. I wouldn’t swap him for anything else in the race.”

One thing Looker has been keen to do is ride Bodhi Boy just off the pace, which is what he wanted to do last start, and he’ll get that chance from a middle barrier with one of the major speed influences drawn wider.

He concedes the three-year-old is going to need to do everything right and elevate himself to the next level but he’s adamant the best will be seen of Bodhi Boy if he does get the chance to relax.

But he adds if nothing wants to lead he’d happily oblige.

“It’s going to be a high pressure race, there’s going to be a lot of speed in it with Marc Quinn’s mare Bomarea, who goes pretty quick, and hopefully it gives him the opportunity to sit off something,’’ he said.

“I feel he will be a better horse when he’s got something to chase.

“We haven’t had a chance to take a sit on him. If he’s third, fourth, fifth somewhere with something to chase it might help him change legs.

Bodhi Boy wins at Port Macquarie on January 24

“We were going to try and take a sit last start, I just didn’t want the horse outside me to cross me and get stuck behind it so I had no choice but to give him a squeeze and hold them out.

“He got pressure in the middle stages but when he quickened up coming to the corner he got them off the bridle and it was a good win.”

First and second from the Port Macquarie race will earn a place in the $1 million Evergreen Turf Country Championships Final (1400m) at Randwick on April 5.

All the fields, form and replays for Sunday's Country Championships meeting at Port Macquarie