Tamworth jockey Brooke Stower has said she is a calming influence on "monster" Epic Ranger ahead of their TAB Highway Plate appointment at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.
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Stower is confident the five-year-old gelding - trained in Tamworth by Jacob Perrett - has the form to provide her with an overdue city winner.
Epic Ranger was formally with the Rob Hickmott stables at Caufield.
Stower said he horse was "an absolute huge unit" who had been "a handful", but "behaves" for her and had a "big motor".
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Stower, who has 425 career wins, rode Epic Ranger to a comfortable last-start win at Inverell over 1600m on January 1.
She is unconcerned by the 59kg the Choisir gelding will carry in Saturday's $120,000 Class 3 showdown over 1500m.
Big weights "aren't an issue" for the horse due to his size, she said.
"He's versatile and settles," she added. "He led and won unextended at Inverell, at his peak this prep."
The Hickmott stables moved Epic Ranger on after successive unplaced runs on the Ballarat synthetic surface in July.
He is lightly raced, with three wins from 15 starts - for more than $64,000 in prize money.
Stower is pure inspiration, having rebounded in style from a horrific fall at Tamworth in 2020 that almost ended her career.
She has 48 winners this season and is well-placed in the NSW jockeys' premiership.
Perrett, meanwhile, has a small team and is a welder by trade. He is chasing his first city win.
Epic Ranger was paying $11 for the win (TAB fixed odds).
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