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By Ray Hickson

The 60kg or barrier 16?

Tommy Berry (Pic: Bradley Photos)

Which is the greater hurdle to Gringotts’ chances in Saturday’s Group 3 $1 million Illawarra Mercury Gong (1600m) - that was the question posed to jockey Tommy Berry.

“I’d say more the 60kg, it’s always tough carrying that sort of weight,’’ Berry said.

“But in saying that it’s a kilo and a half heavier than what he carried the other day and he held them quite well in what I thought was a stronger field.”

The Big Dance winner will need to establish a new weight carrying record to win the Kembla Grange feature, in the five editions to date the 59kg carried by Mister Sea Wolf in the inaugural year remains the benchmark.

Berry said the five-year-old could actually be well placed with that weight considering one of the horses he feels is a major threat, Territory Express, is going up in weight for not winning races of late.

“My bloke is a lovely strong animal and I think he showed the other day he had a class edge on his rivals, especially the way he had to do it from the barrier,’’ he said.

“He’s going to have to prove the same this time from an awkward alley with a big weight but I think he’s the right horse to do it. He’s definitely on the way up.”

Gringotts, $5 with TAB on Friday, was able to offset barrier 19 in the Big Dance as Berry took advantage of the gelding jumping quickly and put him on the speed.

He said given Kembla Grange’s 1600m circuit is not unlike Randwick it’s a source of confidence that he can repeat the ride and the horse can repeat the run.

“They’re both big courses, you’ve got a great run to the first turn and the whole back straight to get across,’’ he said.

“There doesn’t look as much pressure as there was in the Big Dance so I’ll take that into account, speak to Ciaron and see what his ideas are but he left it up to me last time.

“My bloke could end up as a Group 1 horse but he’s not there yet. He improved so much from his first two starts to his third run this prep, he seems to get better as his prep goes on which we saw last time as well.”

If there’s going to be a local win at the Gong meeting, Berry feels the Robert and Luke Price-trained Monte Supreme is a likely candidate in the Midway Handicap (1400m).

The honest four-year-old’s last win was on her home track earlier this year and she put the writing on the wall with her last start second behind another local Direct Fire, who she’ll meet again, at Rosehill two weeks ago.

“She just ran out of condition late, she looked like she was going to run over the top of them,’’ Berry said.

“She was very unlucky the start before at Randwick where I never let her off the bit the whole way down the straight. I feel if she’d had a tougher run there she might have got the job done.

“I love that it’s at her home track and she’s in for a great shot from a good alley.”

Hollywood Hero had a hard luck story to tell from his fourth at Randwick back on November 5 and Berry, who didn’t have a ride in that race, had some interesting observations about the horse going into the ABAX Civil Handicap (1600m).

Gringotts wins the Big Dance

He said, from previous experience on the five-year-old, he’s the type of horse you need to ride a bit on the ugly side and he could understand the choices Josh Parr made.

“Watching it you could see what Josh was thinking and he’s got a very good turn of foot so if you can save him up it can win you races, whereas looping the field isn’t the way to go,’’ he said.

“So I could see what Josh was trying to do and it didn’t work for him.

“I’ll probably have to do the same on him, ride him for a bit of luck around the bend and produce him late.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Kembla Grange meeting