Five-year-old mare Roccin Jo has extended a Moonee Valley winning streak for South Australian trainer Dennis O’Leary.
O’Leary has made the 22-hour round trip from the coastal tourist town of Normanville, 70km south of Adelaide, three times in the past month and has gone home a winner each time.
Roccin Jo and Valuabelle got the ball rolling with a stable double at Moonee Valley on February 11 and Valuabelle returned last Friday week to score again.
And the winning streak may not be over with four-year-old stablemate Adoptme Two, a winner of four of 17 starts, set to make his Moonee Valley debut next Friday night.
Valuabelle is a chance to clash with unbeaten star Black Caviar in the Group One William Reid Stakes the following week and Roccin Jo may run in the Group two Sunline Stakes on the same night.
“We are a long way from here but it is certainly worth coming,” O’Leary said.
“Most of my horses seem to race well here for some reason or other. They tell me if you work on the beach they run well at Moonee Valley.”
Roccin Jo has won five of her 18 starts and is having her best campaign with three wins from her last five runs.
Ridden by Jacob Rule, she settled second in Monday’s Firefighters Union Anniversary Handicap (1600m) before skipping away to score by a length from pacemaker Take The Cash and Minou.
“He rode exactly to the letter, rolling forward and making the other horse work to get to the lead,” O’Leary said.
“I was pretty confident that she would tough it out as we had done a fair bit of work with her.”
O’Leary’s horses spend at least every second day at the beach ridden into the water up to their withers.
He said Roccin Jo would be nominated for the Sunline Stakes while she is racing so well.
“Whether she’s got enough on her CV to get into it will be the question,” O’Leary said.
Valuabelle has won five of her 12 starts but O’Leary is wary of taking on Black Caviar in the William Reid.
“If Black Caviar wasn’t going to be here I would be having bit of a look at that race because her (Valuabelle’s) time the other night was only 0.6 seconds outside Miss Andretti’s track record.
“I have done my sums and I thought she should finish in the first few (in the William Reid) and wouldn’t put herself to shame.”
Meanwhile, trainer Mick Price has declared Nakaaya a certain Sunline runner after a dominant win in the CFMEU Eight Hour Labour Day Handicap (1533m).
The four-year-old Tiger Hill mare has won four of her 10 starts and Price said 1600m was ideal for her after she scored by 1-3/4 lengths from Danz Boy and Blue Oscar.
“It was a soft win and it will get her rating up so she will go around in the Sunline,” Price said.
AAP TURF
