A break-through international success has made Australia’s most successful racing export more keen than ever to return to his homeland and pinch one of its best races.
John Moore, six times the premier trainer of Hong Kong where his runners have won more than $HK1 billion, is back on the trail of a Cox Plate with his Singapore International Cup winner Military Attack.
“There is Royal Ascot and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes but I would love to win a Group One in Australia,” Moore said.
“I’ll talk to the owner and consider giving him a break and then getting him ready for the Cox Plate.”
Military Attack scored Moore’s first international Group One success and the runner-up Dan Excel gave him the quinella in Singapore’s biggest race.
Moore, 63, has made a number of return racing trips to Australia, having left the country in 1971 to become assistant trainer to his father, George Moore.
He took out his own licence in 1985 and has since become Hong Kong’s most successful trainer, training almost 1300 winners.
His most recent foray to Australia was in 2011 when he sent his high-class performer Mighty High who ran below his best in the Caulfield Cup.
But Military Attack, an Irish-bred son of Oratorio, is a better class galloper and clearly handles travelling.
Before his Singapore win, Military Attack had won three on end in Hong Kong, including last month’s QEII Cup.