Pateman bullish on Beautiful Mind’s Plate chances

Jockey Mitchell Pateman is confident he can win his second Fitzpatrick Plate after securing the plum ride aboard the Lindsey Smith-trained Beautiful Mind in Sunday’s sprint feature at the Percy Spencer Racecourse.

Beautiful Mind won on the listed Jungle Dawn Classic (1400m) in December after finishing second to Electric Light in the Jungle Mint Classic (1200m) and then ran sixth behind boom sprinter Carocapo at her last start on December 28.

Pateman won the Fitzpatrick Plate aboard local star Dream Lifter back in 2015 and after returning from a riding break yesterday, believes his mount is the one to beat.

“I think she’s the one,” Pateman said.

“Obviously, I can ride very select horses weight wise, so it’s great to have the chance to ride one for Lindsey at the weight, which is such a good chance.

“I think it and Free Trade are the two; Free Trade drew wide and we’ve got race fitness on our side.

“She ran well in the mares’ series and last start behind Carocapo wasn’t a long way off them in a pretty serious race.”

Beautiful Mind has won four of her 10 career starts and will carry 59kg in the $100,000 Fitzpatrick Plate (1230m).

Jumping from barrier five, Pateman said he was likely to employ positive tactics on the five-year-old.

“I haven’t spoken to anyone yet but I think I’ll look to ride her a bit more positive,” he said. “When she is able to find a spot closer to the speed, she goes very good.

“If we can lob just behind them, I think she’ll be very hard to beat.

“It is a hard race to win. I was lucky enough with Dream Lifter and it’s my hometown sprint, so it means a lot to me.”

The Fitzpatrick Plate drew a strong field of 25 nominations and the final field will contain 14 runners.

Talented sprinter Free Trade resumes for the Michael Lane stable but drew wide while the local runners will be headed by Candlelight Star, Ruin Liam Run and One Short.

Freo, now with Albany trainer Rebecca Wallrodt, will be her first runner in the feature race and drew ideally in barrier two with Jason Whiting aboard.

The first of nine races on Sunday kicks off at 1.37pm.