Michael Freedman has delved into his bag of tricks with three-year-old Moravia, who will sport two key gear adjustments in a bid to put his autumn back on track.
While the colt wasn’t disgraced when finishing fourth to Caballus first-up in the Eskimo Prince Stakes (1200m) at Randwick, Freedman left the track feeling slightly underwhelmed.
“I was scratching my head a little bit with his first-up run,” Freedman said.
“I thought with the type of race it was and where it was, he might have been able to do a better job first-up.”
Rather than press on to last weekend’s Hobartville Stakes (1400m) with Moravia, Freedman opted to keep his powder dry and experiment with some gear changes.
As a result, he has taken the visors off the colt and added a nose roll, a move he hopes will help keep Moravia more settled and focused.
“I wanted to spend an extra week tinkering around with some gear changes,” Freedman said.
“He’s a three-year-old colt and sometimes they start to think about things.
“They can be a bit of a balancing act, but he’s got enormous ability, it’s just a matter of getting him to put his best foot forward.”
Moravia showed glimpses of that talent in his initial campaign last spring when he followed a debut win at Newcastle with Group placings in the San Domenico Stakes (1100m) and The Run To The Rose (1200m).
He also did a good job when stretched to 1400m for the first time in the Golden Rose in which he sat handy to the speed and battled on well to finish sixth, less than 1-1/2 lengths from the winner Militarize.
Moravia is an acceptor for two races at Randwick on Saturday – the James Squire Handicap (1200m) in which he has 58.5kg and will meet emerging sprinter Our Kobison, and the Group 3 Liverpool City Cup (1300m) where he has 53kg but will go toe-to-toe with seasoned campaigners including Coal Crusher, Golden Mile, Cepheus and Kovalica.
