Mooring 20/03/09

Mooring Docks in Again
Michael LeeFriday, March 20, 2009
Promising three-year-old Mooring made it back-to-back victories on Friday night, erasing the memories of his disastrous debut two months ago, when he finished last and returned lame.

The son of Bel Esprit has since bounced back in spectacular fashion, first accounting for a Maiden field over 1000m on March 4 and backing that performance up with another scintillating win in the $55,000 Class 4 race (1000m).

Normally an on-pace type of competitor, Mooring with Danny Beasley in the irons, was this time beaten for speed but quickly mustered enough momentum from the back stretch to slot into the gun run in fifth one-off the fence with plenty of cover.
Mooring makes it two on end with victory under Danny Beasley on Friday night.
Closest danger, favourite That’s Cash (John Sundradas) had had a dream run in the lead and looked to be the one to catch when he swung home with two lengths to spare, and still under a restraint by his rider.

But once Beasley switched Mooring to full gear down the middle, there was no question who was about to reign supreme. In a matter of a few strides, Mooring put a big space between him and the rest to go on and score by 2 ¾ lengths from That’s Cash, with Msixteen (Oscar Chavez) running late for third another 1 ½ lengths away.

Mooring, who is raced by the now familiar colours of Mummify Stable, clocked the slick time of 1min 0.1secs for the 1000m on Polytrack.

“I’m very happy with the way he’s a lot more relaxed during his races now,” was Freedman’s first reaction.

“He still gets all wound up on the way to the barriers, but what matters is he is now more settled and showing greater racing maturity.

“I think I will now extend him a little to up to 1200m and maybe even 1400m. I don’t think he’s just a Polytrack horse as he’s handled the turf as well back home.”

The Australian trainer holds a good opinion of Mooring but it is obvious he does not want to get too carried away at this stage.

“It was just a Class 4 race, but I have a pretty good opinion of the runner-up. They spaced the others in the home straight,” said Freedman.

“My bloke keeps running good times and he seems to have turned the corner since that first race, when he returned lame and got his tongue over. We’ve tied his tongue since and it’s resulted in two wins.

“We’ll just have to see how he goes through his grades to have a better idea if he can measure up to the higher class. At this stage, the three-year-old series is not really on his agenda.”