It was a case of sixth time lucky for Kiwi trainer Mike Moroney on Saturday as Tinseltown took out the 3200m Queensland Cup at Eagle Farm.
Moroney was sure that his gelding could run a strong two miles, however after five unsuccessful attempts at the distance (since March 2009), he could have been forgiven for scrapping any further plans he had to try Tinseltown over the two miles.
After running third in the Caloundra Cup behind Spechenka Moroney decided to give his horse one more try at the two mile trip, and it turned about to be the right choice with Tinseltown cruising to victory ahead of Smoking Chimneys and Raeburn.
“It’s good to see him win a two miler, he’s been a bit unlucky in a few of them,” Moroney said.
“He’s not bog and he lumped 58kg arounf today which is not easy for a small horse. He fell in the Sydney Cup and that was the most confident we’d been with him going into a two mile race.
“Strangely enough he’s probably at his best now, he didn’t start racing until he was four and he’s fully mature now.”
Moroney also heaped the praise on Kiwi jockey Chad Ormsby, who he said did a very good job of gradually working Tinseltown into the race.
Ormsby made a daring move to position himself three wide at the 1200m mark, however the Kiwi hoop said he was always confident in the run.
“I had a pretty good feel all the way. he jumped well as he normally does but then totally relaxed,” Ormsby said.
“I could see a lot of horses going forward in the middle stages because of the slow tempo but I was pretty happy to watch that happening.
“When I did pull him out wider, he just did things on his own, although I was a bit concerned when he was three wide without cover well before the home turn. To his credit, he finished off really strongly and in the end, it was a very good win.”
Persian Star started as favourite for the race however the mare was held up in the back straight and could only manage fifth. Following the race jockey Chris Munce indicated that the Robert Smerdon trained mare was ready to visit the spelling yard.
“She’s probably had enough. I tried to get on the back of the winner going past the 800m mark and she was really struggling to keep up then,” Munce said.
