Gai Waterhouse's instructions were for "the Brothers Grimm" to eyeball each other for 1200 metres as their Sydney horses had their first look at the course proper at Caulfield yesterday.
The brothers, of course, are Nash and Brad Rawiller, and the work was designed to prepare Nash's mount, the promising colt Dreamscape, for his biggest test - the Caulfield Guineas, over 1600m at the track on Saturday. Hence, Dreamscape worked on the inside of stablemate Rockwood.
Waterhouse isn't backwards in pushing forward the chances of her horses, and she was enthusiastic about the three-year-old she called a "real cool dude".
"It was lovely, metered work throughout the 1200 metres," the champion trainer said. "He doesn't knock himself about. He's hard to get a formline on because he just does everything like he did today - he just does it easily."
Nash, at 33 the elder Rawiller, shares the Waterhouse riding with Blake Shinn, and they usually get to choose which horses they will stick with.
"I think he's a really promising horse, one of the nicest horses I've had for a while," Rawiller said of Dreamscape. "Come next season he'll be one of our stars."
The jockey should know star material, having ridden Elvstroem and Haradasun before taking the Waterhouse job early last year.
His Guineas concern is whether Dreamscape gets away cleanly.
"He's missed the start a couple of times," Rawiller said. "If he's slow away, it's going to make it difficult for him, but I think he's got the ability if something goes wrong to still recover."
The colt has drawn barrier 11 in a field of 16 and is the $5.50 second favourite.
Rawiller wants Waterhouse to tinker with the blinker cups to give Dreamscape wider vision in the gates and help him jump with the field.
Lining up Sydney and Melbourne form can be difficult, especially with NSW horses often taking a while to adapt to the Melbourne direction, but Rawiller said form around Aichi, the Darley three-year-old which went south and won last month, indicated the visitors would be competitive.
"Right from day one, he's shown huge potential," the jockey said of Dreamscape. "If he's as good as what I hope he is, this isn't necessarily his best preparation - I think he'll continue to improve. He just gives me the feel of a very smart horse on the way up."
Dreamscape has two wins from three starts, the latest in the group 2 Stan Fox Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on September 27.
The brothers Rawiller are in no way grim, but their recent careers have been fairytales that would be worthy of words from 19th-century storytellers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Brad (30) has been on Weekend Hussler in all his group 1 wins, and Nash ran second to Shinn in last season's Sydney premiership. He has a group 1 win already in Melbourne this season, on Typhoon Zed in the Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley.
Nash is looking forward to more elite success in his home state, but acknowledges that joining Waterhouse has been right for him, especially off the horse, with the bubbly trainer getting him to work on his form study and public-relations efforts.
"It's a great stable to ride for," he said. "I love riding there and I love the work. I don't think I could do much better anywhere else, that's for sure.
"She's very demanding, but fair in the same way. She certainly keeps you on your toes [and] there's always a reward around the corner for all the hard work you're putting in."
Being a premiership contender while sharing stable riding is difficult, and with the extra talent in Sydney this season, to win will be near impossible.
"I wouldn't say I wouldn't like to win a premiership, but I'd rather ride eight group 1 winners .. I'd rather be leading group 1 jockey than premier rider."
Rockwood, a four-year-old gelding by Rock Of Gibraltar, will race this weekend, too - in the group 1 Toorak Handicap if he gets in, otherwise in the Perri Cutten Classic.
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