Race experience has come to the fore in the juvenile race at Caulfield with Hell Of An Effort making it two wins from as many starts.
One of only three horses in Saturday’s Joe Brown Plate (1100m) at Caulfield to have raced before, Hell Of An Effort backed up his debut victory at Geelong with an all-the-way win.
Hell Of An Effort
The Peter Moody-trained colt had support from $8 to $5 and kicked away early in the straight to defeat Ponte Roma, who finished second to him at Geelong, by 2-1/2 lengths with Hell Of An Effort’s stablemate Dot Painting another long neck away third.
Hell Of An Effort is now likely to be given his chance in a Blue Diamond lead-up in the new year.
“He keeps learning and he’s taken nice progression,” Moody said.
“There was a few in that race that people had a bit of an opinion of and he’s put them to the sword pretty softly. That was pretty painless.
“I would suggest we’ve probably got to take the foot off the pedal a little bit and give him his chance in one of those Blue Diamond races – the Preview or the Prelude.
“We’ll just have a look at the program and let him guide us.”
Hell Of An Effort is a son of Reward For Effort who Moody trained to win the 2009 Blue Diamond and he said this colt had a few of his sire’s attributes.
Moody was pleased with the debut of Dot Painting but said he still lacked maturity.
Moody is training with a cobalt case hanging over his head.
The Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board hearing into charges against Moody over Lidari’s elevated cobalt level from the 2014 Turnbull Stakes will resume on February 18.
