Trainer Mike Moroney confessed he was glad not to be on his annual holidays after landing his second Listed Ipswich Cup with Shenzhou Steeds.
Shenzhou Steeds ($8) gave Moroney some belated winter carnival spoils by downing the Gai Waterhouse-trained favourite Kinnersley ($2.40) by a half length in Saturday’s 2150-metre feature.
Gold Coast stayer Warrior Within filled the minor placing, a further 1-3/4 lengths away third.
Moroney was holidaying in the Greek Islands at the time he won his first Ipswich Cup with He’s Back On Track in 1997.
“I’m glad I decided to come here this time to watch Shenzhou Steeds’ win,” Moroney said.
Moroney has been down on firepower during this year’s Brisbane winter carnival and has had little joy from his limited runners until he sent the four-year-old to Queensland.
“He’s won four from four in Queensland and he might go on now to the Caloundra Cup in a fortnight,” Moroney said.
“He’s never been past 1600 metres until today and I think he can run 2400 metres.”
Moroney was full of praise for winning jockey Eddie Wilkinson who executed the trainer’s instructions to the letter.
“Eddie and I go back a long way. He rode for me when I trained in New Zealand before he came here (in 1994) to join the Bruce McLachlan stable,” he said.
“He was my stable rider for a couple of years after he finished his apprenticeship and he won on this horse at Doomben last year when Chad Ormsby couldn’t ride him.”
Ormsby now trains in partnership with Moroney and is the partner of his daughter, Aliesha.
Moroney revealed Ormsby was behind his decision to buy the son of Ishiguru for $NZ120,000.
“Chad won on him the day he narrowly won his maiden in New Zealand,” Moroney said.
“I had my eye on him to buy and Chad told me he murdered him the day he won his maiden and he looked to have a bright future.”
Gai Waterhouse’s representative Denise Martin said runner-up Kinnersley was likely to clash again with Shenzhou Steeds in the Caloundra Cup.
“Chris (Munce) said it was a great run and he thinks he’ll run 2400 metres on his ear,” Martin said.
“If Gai is agreeable we’ll give it one more shot here in the Caloundra Cup.
“At the 100 metres Chris thought he was going to win but he had a bit of difficulty handling the turns.”
