John Moore hoping for that elusive overseas title
There's no Makarpura Star or Viva Pataca, but the trainer knows Military Attack and Dan Excel are drawn to taste international success
Seventeen years ago, John Moore led in the winner of today's Sha Tin feature, the ATV Cup. Nothing particularly surprising about that except Makarpura Star's victory at his first start for five months was the end of the beginning of a personal quest for Moore that has led him to the Singapore Airlines International Cup tomorrow and an overseas feature victory so close he can taste it.
"Yes, Makarpura Star was the first horse I ever went overseas with - he was a real turning point for me. A really top-class horse and one of the best horses of my early career," said Moore, reflecting on the horse who won, in a brilliant 13-month period, the Derby, two Gold Cups and the Champions & Chater Cup, despite an aborted trip to Melbourne that set the tone for some of the many frustrating foreign sorties since.
Both coming off Group One wins and now they've drawn gun gates
"He went to Caulfield and ran in the Coongy Handicap, a Group Three but it was to be his lead in to a Group One, the Mackinnon Stakes during Melbourne Cup week. He ran a terrific race, a close third, and it was a great start. But then he had some lung problems, we had to abort and bring him home. He was too good to risk."
The horse returned to win the ATV Cup, then his second Gold Cup, and Moore learned whatever lessons he could from the trip.
"It wasn't an easy thing in those days, taking a horse away like that. You made mistakes, but you were better for the experience," Moore said. "Nowadays, it's become finely tuned taking horses overseas."
Since Makarpura Star, Moore has taken dozens of horses to major events in Australia, Japan, Dubai and England, and perhaps the unifying experience has been how difficult it is to win Group Ones in someone else's back yard. It's an achievement Moore would dearly love to have to round out his successful career before compulsory age retirement arrives in a couple of years, and the clock is ticking ever louder.
There have been the near misses - runner-up twice with Super Kid in Group Ones at Caulfield; runner-up in last year's Singapore Cup with Zaidan and, of course, Viva Pataca's second to Sun Classique in the Dubai Sheema Classic, when even the world's bookies thought he was the one to be on.