Moore back in the groove with a treble
The hangover of John Moore's vintage season may finally be wearing off after the trainer emerged from yesterday's meeting with a winning treble.
Moore's bold bid to wrest the trainers' crown from John Size in last season's epic struggle left both yards with a dearth of well-handicapped talent in the middle grades to begin this term and that has been borne out in the results as both Moore and Size languished.
But Moore strung together victories with recent acquisition Carrizo Creek and Strong Gain under the guidance of Felix Coetzee, while apprentice Alex Lai Hoi-wing was aboard as three-year-old sprinter Inspiration put the lie to his last-start Happy Valley effort by leading throughout in the ninth.
'At Happy Valley, he drew wide and we wanted to ride him behind,' Moore said.
'The race didn't really pan out for him but he did finish off well there and I wasn't disappointed.'
But the bigger Sha Tin track and an inside gate provided the cure that Inspiration's form needed yesterday and Lai put him in a position of authority right from the off.
'At Happy Valley we really had no option but to go back and today from the draw we really didn't have any option but to go forward,' Moore said.
'He's a lovely horse this, a pleasure to train. He has a great attitude and has his share of ability too. As he matures and settles in his races, I'm sure he's going to get 1,400m.' Inspiration held off the late charge of Bear Macho [Douglas Whyte] to win with Money Man [Coetzee] in third and Moore pointed out that the trio had virtually replicated their Juvenile Sprint Trophy form when they clashed in June and finished in the three placings, albeit in slightly different order.
'At the weights, Bear Macho wasn't as well off against my horse today and I think you'd have to say the three of them ran to the form book,' Moore said.
Strong Gain's win hardly came as a surprise to the trainer either after he had finished well behind favourite Yellow Diamond when they met over 1,200m first-up for the season.
'He closed off well there at 1,200m and all along I've said this horse would get up 1,600m in time, so I wasn't worried about the 1,400m. He's a more mature horse now than when he tried it last season,' Moore said.
'The key to him today was holding him up - he needs to be allowed to finish his race off.
'I asked Felix to be a bit closer than last start but not to use him too much early and I was confident he'd finish the race off.
'I think Strong Gain is a pretty handy horse with more ratings points in him yet.
'He has that awkward leg action that we all know about but that's just him and it probably isn't going to change at this stage of his career but it won't stop him winning more races.'
