Mike Moroney is considering interstate options with Loyalty Man and the gelding’s performance at Caulfield will help the trainer decide which direction he takes.
Loyalty Man has won back-to-back midweek city races at Sandown in the past month and steps up in distance and to Saturday class in the Sky High Mt Dandenong Handicap (1800m).
“After this race we’ll have to make up our mind whether we head to Queensland with him, or maybe stay here and go over to Adelaide for the Guineas,” Moroney said.
“Saturday is going to be the telling point.”
Should Loyalty Man perform well on Saturday then Moroney could take him to Brisbane and try him over further again in the Rough Habit Plate (2000m) two weeks later with a view to a possible Queensland Derby start in June.
The Listed Adelaide Guineas is also in two weeks over 1600m, a distance he won over at Sandown last start.
“We’ll just see how he goes on Saturday,” Moroney said.
“It’s going to be a fork in the road for him as to where we head.”
Moroney said on breeding – Loyalty Man is by Fastnet Rock out of Imperial Beauty who won a Group One sprint in France – there would be a question mark on the three-year-old over further than Saturday’s distance.
“He had one go at 1800 metres in the spring but it was a wet track,” Moroney said.
“Hopefully we don’t get too much rain because he is better on top of the ground.”
Moroney said it’s taken Loyalty Man a while to get his racecraft right but he was improving all the time which he needs to for the step up in class on Saturday.
Loyalty Man is second favourite behind Godolphin’s Unbreakable and apprentice Jake Bayliss retains the ride having won on him in his past two starts.
