Trainer Steve O’Dea is adamant he won’t rush Sir Moments into chasing Group One goals during the spring carnival despite the three-year-old posting his fourth stakes victory at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Sir Moments, the $3.30 favourite, missed the start but produced a barnstorming last-to-first finish to win in the Listed Daybreak Lover (1600m).
O’Dea is thinking long-term with Sir Moments and a spring carnival campaign is unlikely.
“I don’t want to short-cut him again like I did last year,” O’Dea said.
“When I took him to Sydney last spring he wasn’t mentally ready for it and I put him away after only one run.”
O’Dea is leaning towards bypassing the spring carnival and instead aiming Sir Moments at the Villiers Stakes (1600m) at Randwick in December.
“I’m trying to look at the big picture with him and have him at his top for next year’s winter carnival with the Stradbroke as his main goal,” he said.
Earlier, Sports Edition ($8.50) gave jockey Tommy Berry his first winner from his first ride at Eagle Farm when he won the Hampden Stakes (1200m).
Berry said the key to Sports Edition’s win was his relaxed nature before the race.
“From all reports he was too revved up at his first start at Randwick but today he was very relaxed in the yard and that was the difference between winning and losing,” Berry said.
“When I asked him to switch off during the race he did and when I gave him a squeeze he knuckled down really well.
“He’s got the makings of a very nice horse.”
Mark Newnham, representing trainer Gai Waterhouse, said Sports Edition would have his next start in the Mercedes-Benz Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 21.
“Physically he’s a brute of a horse but mentally he still has a way to go,” Newnham said.
“He came here with a job to do and that was to win a black type race as a two-year-old so he’s ticked that box.”
Sports Edition is raced by Henry Cojuangco, the brother of Filipino businessman Eduardo Cojuangco who owns Gooree Stud.
