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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Joe Pride says it’s up to Storm The Ramparts’ rivals to come up to his level to beat him despite a 62.5kg impost at Rosehill on Satutday.

Trainer Joe Pride (Pic: Bradley Photos).

And while that weight is the first negative most people will focus on, Pride said it won’t be the weight that brings about the in-form gelding’s downfall in the 50 Year And Life Member Handicap (1100m).

Pride said he sees no advantage in using an apprentice in the scenario in question as taking 2kg or 3kg off won’t reduce the overall burden in the long run.

“The claim off the bottom works a lot better than the claim off the top,’’ Pride said.

“I don’t have stats to back that up but I’m absolutely convinced of it. Weight in races 1400m and below I’m not worried about.

“Rather than putting a light weight jockey on who is going to have seven or eight kilos of dead weight, I’d prefer to have Josh (Parr) on and have three or four kilos of dead weight.”

Storm The Ramparts, $3 with TAB on Friday, carried 61.5kg to a narrow defeat at the hands of Lulumon at Randwick two weeks ago, just denying him a hat-trick over the 1000m.

He’ll concede 5kg to his major rival in the market, resuming Godolphin three-year-old Tarpaulin, and Pride said the onus is on that rival to prove himself.

“It looks like hollow two-year-old form. He’s got to go to a level he hasn’t been before because those races he won as a two-year-old were on wet tracks. I think we’ve got him covered,’’ he said.

“There was a race at the Sunshine Coast over 1000m, but I saw the noms for this race and with respect to the opposition I thought it was a soft race.

“He’s coming away from Randwick but he’s in the zone, I don’t want to change too much up with him and the prizemoney is not much less.

“He’s really hard to beat.”

It’s appearing more likely that Pride will roll the dice with Accredited in the Listed $200,000 Precise Air Winter Stakes (1400m) with the track improving to a heavy 8 on the eve of the race.

Pride could have as many as four runners in the feature, with Estadio Mestalla already in the field and emergencies Cool Jakey and Testator Silens to take their place if a start presents to them.

Accredited put a Melbourne failure behind him with a dominant win over 1200m at Randwick two weeks ago and Pride likes how the race looks likely to unfold for him.

“I’m thinking it’s going to be a good enough track for him,’’ he said.

“I don’t want a genuine heavy track, it hasn’t rained nearly as much out west as it has in town. With no rain on it for probably a three day period going into the race I’m thinking its going to be okay.

“It was a great win the other day, very strong.”

Estadio Mestalla hasn’t performed to the level Pride hoped so far this preparation so the blinkers are going on in an attempt to get him interested.

After a promising enough first-up run he finished with the tailenders in the Civic Stakes.

“He’s a much better horse than what he’s done this time around, I can’t find a reason why but he gets another opportunity,’’ he said.

Storm The Ramparts runs second at Randwick on June 21

“A softish track won’t be a problem for him and maybe the blinkers are what he needs to switch him on.”

Joe Pride on Excelladus (race 8): “His last run was excellent, much better than his finishing position would suggest. He’s finally got a soft draw and finally gets onto soft ground, he’ll run well.”

On Little Cointreau (race 10): “Blinkers go on, he’s only had them on once before and he ran well. I’ve kept them up my sleeve with him so I feel like there’s a length or two improvement and that might be what he needs.”

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