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Happy Zero blazes a trail for Moore

Trainer delighted to take a leaf out of Size's book

John Moore's strategy of taking a leaf out of rival trainer John Size's book began to bear fruit in the opening race yesterday as Happy Zero became the first of his 'B52s' for the season as part of a treble.

Moore has implemented a plan to bring more unraced horses in this season in an effort to 'train bulk winners for the season', and Happy Zero (Darren Beadman) got the plan off to a great start in scoring by four lengths.

'John Size has a few of them every year - these progressive horses that come in unraced on a 52 rating, which is why I call them B52s - and they win their two or three races for the term and you need to have them if you want to aspire to having bigger numbers of winners,' Moore said.

'My main aim is always to lead the prize money tally each season, which means having good higher grade horses. But if I want to have, say, more than 50 winners for the season, these good Class Four horses with some scope to go up through the ratings are a must. Happy Zero is the first of them this season and there will be others coming on line soon.'

Happy Zero, a full brother to former good sprinter Triumphant Unicorn, had been trialled quietly on the all-weather since arriving, but his above average ability had been well advertised in some excellent trials in Sydney.

Despite drawing the wrong side of the course in gate one, Happy Zero had the tactical speed to keep in close contact with the leader, Belong To Casa, before proving too strong in the final stages.

'I'd always been hunting for a nice Danzero and this one came up at the sales,' Moore said. 'He wasn't a cheap horse and we did have a setback in getting him up here after he had a bout of colic in Sydney. But the way he has performed today, you'd have to say he looks progressive. Running 56.5 seconds on debut is a good time.'

It proved to be Beadman's only winner for the day, with the jockey succumbing to back pain and being stood down for the remainder of the day.

'When Ice Fire had his first start a couple of weeks ago, he got surprised by all the cameras taking his picture as he was going out on to the track and tipped me off,' Beadman said.

'I landed a bit awkwardly and I've had a bit of back pain since then. But with the international races and not wanting to miss them, there's been no chance to rest it. I've been working through it with lots of physio and acupuncture and such, and John hasn't been asking me to ride much work, so it has been manageable.'

Beadman will enjoy Christmas in Phuket with his family before looking to return at next weekend's Sha Tin fixture.

'The doctor has told Darren no golf there but hopefully the warm weather and the break and some swimming will have his back feeling better,' Moore said.

The yard has already opened a sizeable margin over John Size in the run for the championship, with a treble taking Moore's tally to 34 wins and eight ahead of his rival.

Unstoppable

John Moore is eight ahead of John Size in the trainers' championship race after taking his tally to: 34

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