Constellation and Armondo appear to have heeded calls to shape up or ship out
Whatever other qualities they may or may not possess, the John Moore-trained pair of Constellation and Armondo last night revealed themselves as good eavesdroppers at the very least.
Moore crept within one of John Size in the chase for the season's training championship when he made bookends of the Happy Valley card with Constellation (Eric Saint-Martin) and Armondo (Gerald Mosse), with both horses on their last chance.
Moore said he had filled in and signed Constellation's retirement form virtually in front of the horse and told the owner that the gelding's time was up.
'He must have heard me, that's all I can put tonight's win down to,' laughed Moore. 'I told the owner we should retire Constellation and get him a better horse, but he had a protection in the entries for tonight, so we agreed to send him around and if he didn't win he was retired, simple as that.
'He doesn't look like a Class Five horse, he had performed much better than that in his trials in Australia but here he has been very disappointing. No heart, no finish in his races - he got away with it tonight with an inside barrier and a track bias. I guess now I'll have to pin the retirement form to his stable door in the morning and see if it does the trick again.'
