Tinseltown tackles Waikato Gold Cup

Matamata jockey Craig Grylls will chase his second Waikato Times Gold Cup in the space of two years when he partners form stayer Tinseltown in Saturday's $100,000 Te Rapa feature.

Grylls, 20, rode the Sir Patrick and Lady Hogan-owned and John Sargent-trained Lovetrista in the 2008 Waikato Cup to secure one of his biggest wins as a jockey.

The son of former top jockey Gary Grylls has established himself among the top echelon of Waikato riders and has developed a good rapport with the Michael Moroney and Andrew Clarken-trained Tinseltown.

Grylls was suspended for careless riding at Ellerslie last Saturday but opted to use a seven-day deferral so he could partner Tinseltown in this weekend's 2400m Group Two event.

"I've ridden him quite a lot. I've probably ridden him in most of his starts over the last two years. I went to Brisbane to ride him and he's been a good horse to me."

In the past two years, Grylls has partnered Tinseltown to a Group Three Rotorua Cup win, a Group Two Brisbane Cup third placing, a Te Aroha Cup win and a Rotorua Cup second placing. He saved the best for last, guiding the Pentire seven-year-old to success in the Group Two $100,000 Counties Cup (2100m) at Pukekohe last month.

Grylls said Tinseltown had continued to progress.

"He's working better than ever. He's been ticking along nicely since the Counties Cup and I couldn't be any happier with him," Grylls said.

"I was confident going into the Counties Cup and pretty much the same for this Saturday.

"He's probably going to have a bit more weight on Saturday but he carried 57 [kilograms] last time and handled that all right so I'm not too worried really."