Linda Meech: In form and under the radar

Since Caulfield Cup day Linda Meech has had just 11 rides in the six Victorian metropolitan meetings featuring group 1 races.

But she has made the most of those opportunities, booting home three winners from the 11 rides, one of just seven jockeys (Hugh Bowman, Kerrin McEvoy, John Allen, Tim Clark, Craig Williams, Meech and Damian Lane) to register three wins or more at those high profile meetings.

A winner on Melbourne Cup day aboard One More Try followed wins on Shoko on Cox Plate day and Sircconi on Caulfield Cup day.

Linda Meech with trainer Ken Keys.

Linda Meech with trainer Ken Keys.Credit:AAP

Meech's brilliant front running ride on Shoko in the group 3 Tesio Stakes at Moonee Valley was also her 100th Victorian metropolitan win.

That milestone, coming 17 years after she won her first city race in Melbourne on Sir Boom in May 2001, hardly registered with Meech given the 38-year-old has ridden more than 1500 winners throughout Australia since the turn of the century.

Meech agrees her spring has been OK, wryly noting that getting rides on the big days doesn't always put her in a position to perform.

Not that she complains. It's not her way.

"I try not to think about things too much," Meech told Fairfax Media.

The hardest of hard workers knows there are always other jockeys hard at her heels, leaving her with no inclination to smell the roses.

"I don't think you can there are plenty of guys who are going to take your rides so if you don't turn up…," Meech said.

On Saturday she will turn up to Flemington with just Ignited in race three to ride, hoping to make the most of the ride in the same way her friend Michelle Payne, who she visited on Wednesday for a catch-up, did when she rode Miner's Miss into third place in the Oaks.

In form and under the radar: that's how Meech rolls.

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