Military Move perseveres to finally win on the dirt, but Moore not celebrating
For a horse with a Group One in his resume and a rating now in triple figures, Military Move was not getting a lot of compliments despite breaking through for his first local victory.
John Moore turned to the all-weather with the former New Zealand Derby winner 'to see if we could give him some options' after the five-year-old's nine winless starts and Military Move (Darren Beadman) broke through - but it wasn't very convincing.
'He finally got a win,' said Moore, relieved rather than exultant after the five-year-old sat outside the leader to the turn before running at the finish line like it was the edge of a cliff. 'That was a great ride by Darren. He made sure the horse was not getting dirt kicked in his face, it was more like a morning gallop to him and that was important. I'm not sure we would have got the same sort of result if he was buried in behind them and getting kickback.'
Brought in last season as a Derby hopeful by prominent owner Steve Lo Kit-sing, Military Move had run some worthwhile races in good company - he just hadn't looked all that keen on winning and nor did he look too enthusiastic yesterday.
'I think that was a pretty poor Derby in New Zealand he won and he had all the luck to win it. As a result of that he has come in very high in the ratings for the horse he is,' said Moore. 'Mr Lo wanted to run him on the turf over 1,800m at the end of the month but I said to him we should gamble with him on the all-weather because he needs some more options if he's going to win races. Fortunately, it worked out, but Darren said Military Move didn't like it much when he got hit with the whip.'
Moore was the king of the dirt events yesterday, taking the Class Three sprint earlier with Sky Mascot (Beadman).
A disappointment on turf in his earlier days, the son of Show A Heart has found his niche in racing on the all-weather, registering three wins from six starts at the 1,200m course and he made amends for his defeat last month as favourite when resuming from the break.
'I don't know about the Show A Heart stock on artificial surfaces, but when this horse wasn't winning on the turf early, after showing us some ability, Darren told me he remembered Sky Mascot's dam, Sticky Date, and recalled that she had been a real swimmer on wet tracks. So that was when we tried Sky Mascot on this softer surface and it's turned things around for him.'
Beadman managed to win the Jockey Challenge with his double and a pair of placings on Good Thinker and Captain Sweet.
