Tony Noonan admits it has been a while since he has had a headline horse but the Group One-winning trainer believes debut city winner Elite Legacy has a promising career ahead of him.
Elite Legacy was a $6 chance in Wednesday’s Chandler Macleod Plate (1000m) at Sandown and powered to a three-quarter length win over Bella Martini ($7.50) with another 1-1/4 lengths to Tata Madiba ($11) third.
“He’s a good type,” Noonan said.
“He’s got a really good brain. He relaxes beautifully. So I think he’s got a promising future.”
Noonan has trained a number of quality horses during his career, most notably Ortensia and Piavonic, but admits it has been a while since he has had a good horse in his Mornington stable.
He said Elite Legacy had shown encouraging signs for the future and he intended to give the gelding a couple more winter starts to get him more seasoned as a guide to where he could measure up as a three-year-old.
Elite Legacy gave Noonan his second Melbourne metropolitan winner for the season.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had a good horse, and I probably don’t have the quality of horses that I’ve had in the past to compare him with one,” Noonan said.
“So you come in knowing there’s going to be a lot of improvement in him because he hasn’t really had a lot of pressure put on him.
“He’ll learn a lot out of that today and he’s got the makings of a nice horse.
“He’s always shown nice ability and there has always been a lot of confidence about him as far as his ability. The query was just whether he had the smarts to do it today.”
