Trainer Robbie Laing has paid tribute to sports commentator Drew Morphett after Missrock’s comeback win at Moonee Valley.
Laing said Morphett and his wife Karen were instrumental in getting the mare back to the track.
Morphett, who lived on a property at Pakenham, died suddenly on Friday night.
“Sending big love to Kaz they were so instrumental in getting this star mare back to the track after injury” Laing said on Twitter.
Having her first start since running second to Vega Magic in the Goodwood at Morphettville in May, Missrock overpowered Heatherly late in Saturday’s Listed Carlyon Stakes.
Backed from $8.50 to $7, Missrock defeated the $2.15 favourite Heatherly by a neck with Lady Esprit ($10) 1-1/2 lengths away third.
Laing said there were several options for Missrock including trying to get a start in the $10 million The Everest at Randwick in October.
He initially said Missrock would return to Moonee Valley on September 9 for the Group Two McEwen Stakes over 1000m.
“Watching her today, with the edge off her, she might want 1200 metres now,” Laing said.
“She’s got Vega Magic form and she beat English home two starts ago and they’re talking The Everest.
“If she won a nice Group race in the next few weeks she might get a spot and she does go well at Randwick.”
Laing said Missrock returned from the spelling paddock 6-1/2 weeks ago but because of wet tracks the only grass gallop she’d had was at Moonee Valley on Tuesday.
“Going through the field, the barometer was which one of these could run second in a Goodwood,” Laing said.
“There wasn’t many of them.
“I thought we’d be giving Heatherly a start, but this mare has a bit of guts about her.”
Laing said the mare would be kept to sprinting after being tried over a staying trip as a spring three-year-old filly.
He said if the mare failed to gain a run in The Everest he believed the four-year-old could be a lightweight chance in the Group One Sir Rupert Clark Stakes at Caulfield in October.
“Hopefully she can win a Group One,” Laing said.
“She’s a very valuable mare as she is, but if we can build on that it would be terrific.”
Runner-up Heatherly was vetted pre-race after playing up in the gates with co-trainer Simon Zahra loathe to offer that as an excuse for defeat.
“That didn’t cost her victory. She just wasn’t good enough on the day,” Zahra said.
