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By Ray Hickson

It takes a genuine star to carry 57kg to win the TAB Epsom and jockey Tommy Berry says Mo’unga will need to be every bit a star if he’s to join the race’s honour roll at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

Jockey Tommy Berry (Pic: Steve Hart)

Since the great Super Impose won his second Epsom under 61kg in 1991 only five horses have carried Mo’unga’s weight to victory and they are all bona fide topliners – Filante, Racing To Win, the incomparable Winx, Happy Clapper and Hartnell.

Berry said a personal best will be required for the Annabel Neasham-trained four-year-old to win the Group 1 $1.5m TAB Epsom Handicap (1600m) but it’s not beyond his limits.

“I think he deserves to carry the weight, he’s a multiple Group 1 winner and is a Group 1 winner at weight-for-age and beat probably the best weight-for-age star in Australia,’’ Berry said.

“It’s hard to deny he deserves that weight or something close to it but it does make his task tough.

“It’s taken some very good horses to do it but some of the horses that have done it in the past were probably in stronger Epsoms than this year.”

As Berry alluded Mo’unga, $6.50 with TAB on Friday, managed to beat Verry Elleegant first-up in the Winx Stakes (1400m) in August and he said he was impressed with what he saw last start in Melbourne.

The entire endured a tough run and ran boom horse Incentivise to a narrow margin in the Makybe Diva Stakes.

“He was very good last start, he beat Sir Dragonet home and the mare came out and franked the form winning at Group 1 at her following start,’’ he said.

“He’s ticking all the right boxes and is going very well at home. Obviously, the weight is the main query and if he didn’t have that sort of weight he’d be favourite.”

In Epsom history, and certainly in recent times, the barrier draw has proven largely inconsequential and Berry doesn’t mind where Mo’unga will jump from out in 13.

He has the expected leaders Ashman and Riodini drawn outside him and says he just needs to make the right early calls and be afforded his share of luck to be in the finish.

“You can’t be too negative from a start like that, especially from the alley,’’ he said.

“You’ve got to be a little bit positive and if I can get us into a good spot he will give himself every chance.”

With just two weeks until the TAB Everest, Berry is expecting Masked Crusader to reaffirm his place as one of the leading chances by giving the Group 2 $500,000 ACY Securities Premiere Stakes (1200m).

Mo'unga wins the Winx Stakes at Randwick

After a booming last-to-first win first-up at Caulfield the gelding, who runs in the Max Whitby and Neil Werrett Everest slot, wasn’t a factor in the Shorts after stepping away slowly once again and working home into fifth place behind Eduardo.

Masked Crusader, $2.40 with TAB on Friday in the Premiere, is on the fourth line of TAB Everest betting at $8.

“I’d say providing the track is in good order and he gets the right run you’d expect him to go close to winning,’’ Berry said.

“He’s got to put his hand up. But he’s a top class sprinter, the best horse in the race, and he runs very good times.

“How he jumps will determine where he will be in the run. He comes out slow most times but if he can jump away with them it has him that couple of lengths closer.

“My biggest query is if the track was like it was a couple of weeks ago, he didn’t look like he enjoyed it and it was hard to make ground down the middle.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's TAB Epsom meeting at Randwick