The addition of blinkers to the gear of Mr Money Bags has paved the way to the gelding registering his maiden victory.
After runs at Moe and Wangaratta over 1114m and 1400m respectively, trainer Robbie Griffiths applied the blinkers to the gelding’s race gear in Wednesday’s Ladbrokes Plate (1400m).
They had the desired effect as the three-year-old raced closer to the speed, but more importantly, finished the race off strongly under Beau Mertens to record a 1-3/4 length victory over Hermanito.
“He worked like a jet in them the other morning, but he’s a big raw horse that is a work in progress,” Griffiths said.
“He doesn’t know what he’s doing on the training track. He’s either anxious or lazy and doesn’t seem to have a middle gear.
“Even though he finished off well at Moe and Wangaratta, he did in slow motion, so we put the blinkers on and they sharpened him right up.
“He went forward today, but I liked the way he was strong to the line.”
Griffiths said Mr Money Bags will continue to get better with each preparation but wants to extend the gelding’s first campaign.
He has his eye on the Super VOBIS Three-Year-Old race over 2000m at Flemington on January 20.
“Hopefully he’ll stretch further in distance in time and we’ll see where he ends up,” Griffiths said.
“I want to get him out to 2000 metres at Flemington but I want to talk to Beau to see if he’ll be all right to run in that with blinkers.”
