Gary Moore can’t give Takedown enough credit for helping him get back into Sydney racing.
But the trainer’s admiration for the two-year-old will go to another level if Takedown can stretch a winning sequence in the Group One Champagne Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
Takedown
The winner of eight Macau training premierships, Moore has set-up at Rosehill since the start of the season and Takedown has been an unlikely pin-up horse for the new stable.
“He doesn’t look like a two-year-old but he’s done everything I’ve asked of him,” Moore said.
Takedown will be trying to make it four wins on end in a Champagne Stakes that has two fillies – the well-fancied Pasadena Girl and the outsider Mine Two – taking on seven colts.
It doesn’t rate as a vintage edition of the final leg of the autumn triple crown for two-year-olds but that doesn’t change the importance of the result to Moore.
There is a strong family link to the race to be considered involving some of Australia’s modern-day greats of the turf with Moore’s father George riding Time And Tide (1963), Rajah (1968) and Baguette (1970) to victory.
And there’s also the business side of racing.
“If Takedown can do it on Saturday, it will show people we are running a pretty serious operation,” Moore said.
At $6, Takedown shares the third line of betting behind Odyssey Moon ($3.20) and Pasadena Girl ($3.50).
Odyssey Moon and Pasadena Girl have come through the Sires’ Produce Stakes, finishing second and fourth respectively.
Takedown has taken a lesser route after complementing his Black Opal Stakes win with a Group Three victory over Street Rapper at Rosehill.
He has drawn the widest of the nine runners but Moore says he won’t change the horse’s racing pattern and expects Kerrin McEvoy to have Takedown on the speed.
