Michael Rodd will ride in Saturday’s BTC Cup in a lot less pain than in his last Group One race.
A wayward Scratchy Bottom broke Rodd’s nose when she threw her head back into his face before she finished third in the Australasian Oaks in Adelaide on April 26.
Rodd then rode Villa Verde into fourth in the Group One Robert Sangster Classic despite the pain 40 minutes later.
A suspension gave Rodd the chance to have doctors set his nose back to its original shape.
“I broke it across the bridge and caved the side in so they had to pop it back out,” Rodd said.
Rodd will reunite with the Tony Gollan-trained Spirit Of Boom in the BTC Cup after Tim Bell rode the entire when he ran second to his half-brother Temple Of Boom last time out in the Group Two Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm.
Rodd partnered Spirit Of Boom to his maiden Group One win in the William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley in March.
Spirit Of Boom has not won in 10 starts at Doomben but Rodd said Gollan’s reports left him confident the six-year-old could improve that statistic.
“He’s ticking over really well so he’s going to be hard to beat,” Rodd said.
Rodd nominated the odds-on favourite Buffering as the hardest to beat in the $400,000 feature but said the triple Group One winner would not have things his own way up front.
“I’m feeling confident because there’s a lot of pressure,” Rodd said.
“There are a few going forward so that’s going to help me.”
Rodd said he would aim to time Spirit Of Boom’s run perfectly to deny the chance to lose concentration.
Spirit Of Boom will return to his birthplace, Eureka Stud, to begin his stud career at the end of his winter campaign which will culminate in the Group One Stradbroke Handicap on June 7.