Neither co-trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy nor Luke Currie are not getting ahead of themselves, but they all believe that Moana Spirit has potential and the Blue Diamond might be a chance to realise it.
Moana Spirit ($4.80) won on debut at Morphettville Parks over 1000 metres on December 6 and nearly a month later has followed up to take out the $150,000 Geelong Diamond (1100m).
“She’s a beautiful, laid-back filly and very unassuming,” Calvin McEvoy said.
“She was quite raw in her work going towards Adelaide and we didn’t expect a huge amount. She went over there, she won, and since she returned to Flemington, we noticed that she’d really switched on and I thought her jump-out in between was fantastic.”
“She’s improved a lot,” Luke Currie added.
“She jumped out really well, but I didn’t think that she was going probably quite as well as some of the others at the time.
“Today she was really dynamic. She jumped well as she always has and just speaking with Calvin before, she probably looks like she still needs to furnish, strengthen a little bit and her main attribute would be her turn-of-foot, rather than sort of ride her and put her on top of the speed because she jumped so well, and then have her get tired.
“She jumped well again, there was solid pressure from both sides, I came back, and she had the right run, got onto the favourite’s back cornering and she was really sharp when I asked her.”
Moana Spirit won by two lengths over the Ciaron Maher-trained debutante and $2.35 race favourite Ghana’s Akan with Fine Sierra ($16) a further length away in third.
A homebred filly by Yu Long Investments, the daughter of 2020 Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) winner Tagaloa may have her chance to do the same in the $2 million Victorian highlight for juveniles, but a start in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) at Caulfield on January 24 is a likely steppingstone towards the February 21 aim.
“Everything about her tells us that she’s going to be better at three, but she’s two from two, she’s won her way in today,” McEvoy added.
“We might keep her a fresh head towards a Preview maybe and then hopefully she’s there for the Blue Diamond.”