Trainers' championship lamplighter John Moore grabbed another double as he worked his magic on new acquisition Soaring Dragon at the first time of asking, while Rewarding Star showed he is continuing to respond to the same spell. Moore goes into the New Year with a tidy 10-win buffer over John Size and said his dream start to the term had been 'more than I could have wished for'. 'The stable is flying, everything is racing well and the only black spot was the problems that Viva Pataca struck in the Hong Kong Cup - other than that, it's turning out a fabulous season and if we can keep this up, then we can break our prize money record for the season,' Moore said, and added the good news stable rider Darren Beadman will be back for the next meeting on New Year's Day. 'Darren has had a good break this past week at Phuket and that was probably just what he needed to get over the niggling problems. He'll ride work on Monday, he will ride trials this week and provided he checks out OK with the club doctor he will ride on Thursday. He said he feels fine and is raring to go.' Zac Purton (Soaring Dragon) and Eric Saint-Martin (Rewarding Star) made able stand-ins for Beadman, the former leading all the way in race five and the latter squeezing through a narrow inside opening to take the final race. 'I didn't really know much about Soaring Dragon, he's only been with me for three weeks,' Moore said. 'The owner [Albert Hung Chao-hong] bought a nice Exceed And Excel at the International sale and asked me if I would take him and Soaring Dragon as kind of a package and I was happy to do so.' Although Soaring Dragon had not won in 10 prior starts, he had often shown ability and Moore said he had been keen for Purton to get the horse motivated and into the race early. 'He arrived very fit and he'd done well in the stable since he arrived, so I was hoping but Soaring Dragon worked down the riverside the other day and was very, very lazy so I just said to Zac to get him out of the gates and switched on,' Moore said. 'That worked and winning by four lengths, you'd have to think there's another win in him.' But if there was a horse who has typified Moore's flourishing season, it has been Rewarding Star. Once looking likely to spend his life as a Class Five cellar dweller, Rewarding Star had not won in his first 23 starts up to February on last year, but how different his form line looks since with his last 13 runs bringing four wins, four seconds, two third, two other prize money cheques and onto the verge of Class Two. 'Well he is out of a Zabeel mare and we see them all the time just improving as they get older and he's been typical of that,' Moore said. 'He's probably 40 or 50 pounds heavier now than he has been in past seasons and he's coping with racing better as a result and that's why he's become so consistent.'
