Mid Summer Music, a mare Peter Moody tried to sack after her first start, gave the former Queenslander one of the greatest thrills of his training career with an upset win in the Group One Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Mid Summer Music ($31) scored a decisive 1-3/4-length win over gallant topweight Buffering ($6) with Happy Zero ($31) a short head away third in the $1 million 1400-metre feature.
Mid Summer Music became the first mare to win the Stradbroke in 76 years, since Capris was successful in 1936.
Moody, who earlier won the Group One Queensland Derby with Brambles, rated the Stradbroke as the equal of the thrill he got watching Black Caviar come to Queensland last year for her Group One BTC Cup victory at Doomben.
“When I came here last year with Black Caviar we expected her to win the BTC Cup and it was a big thrill,” Moody said.
“But to come home with this mare and win my first Stradbroke is something really special.
“It’s great to be home and this is Queensland racing at its ultimate.
“I expected to win the Queensland Derby before this race but not this.”
Moody, who will soon head to England to put the final touches on Black Caviar for the Group One Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot, praised jockey Luke Nolen for a superb ride.
“It was a tremendous ride from Luke. The mare really gutsed it out and I’d love to have a stableful like her.”
“This mare loves the sting out of the ground but I told her owners we’d just ride her for luck.
“We were never confident although she’s raced well in good company in the past.”
Moody thanked jockey Linda Meech for talking him out of sacking the six-year-old daughter of Oamaru Force after she won at her first start in Victoria.
“She won a maiden at Warracknabeal and I was going to sack her until Linda talked me out of it,” Moody said.
Moody will keep Mid Summer Music in Queensland for one more start in the Group One Tatt’s Tiara (1400m) at Eagle Farm in a fortnight before formulating a spring campaign.
Mid Summer Music, who had finished ninth to Sea Siren in the Doomben 10,000 last start, has now earned nearly $1.3 million in prizemoney since her maiden win at Warracknabeal.
Trainer Rob Heathcote was delighted with Buffering’s bulldog-like performance.
“When the marble (barrier 18) fell during the week, I knew that was our fate,” Heathcote said.
“He was made to carry the weight (58kg) and was always going to do it tough.
“It was a great performance and all courage.”
Heathcote, who is still chasing his first Group One on home soil, will now spell Buffering before deciding on a spring campaign.
“He’ll go to Melbourne for the Manikato, Schillaci Stakes and Patinack Farm and I’d love to take him to Hong Kong for the Sprint,” he said.
“But I’ll have to talk to that bugger Moody to see what he’s going to do with that mare (Black Caviar).”
