John Dunne
David Moran is waiting on an invitation to contest the Group 1 $355,000 The Rising Sun in Brisbane after his pacer Captain Hammerhead scored an impressive win at Melton on Saturday night.
Moran wasted little time in heading around to sit parked outside Jillibyjacksparrow over the 1720 metre sprint trip and the pair increased the tempo with a 27.4 back straight quarter.
Despite racing off the pegs, Captain Hammerhead ($3) dug deep in the home straight to get up and score by a neck from Jillilbyjacksparrow with Kosimo 10 metres away third finishing with a 26.9 last 400 metres to record a mile rate of 1:51.4.
Moran said it was the plan to back the pacer up after being beaten as an odds on favourite last week.
“With the three weeks between runs and being a four-year-old bull he might just have got away a little bit, so that’s why I elected to back him up this week in seven days,” Moran said.
Moran is confident Captain Hammerhead has staked his claim to play a role in proceedings at Albion Park during the Queensland Constellations.
“Tonight was the decider whether we went to Queensland or not and you’d think on that run he would probably get an invite now that he’s put in a better performance,” he said.
He travelled a lot better this week whereas last week he didn’t travel any good at all, so I gave him a bit of a sharpen up in the warm up tonight.”
Moran believes the winner is yet to realise his full potential.
“I’ve said for a long time that he’s a really really good horse and I think the best is yet to come with him,” he said.
Reformed trotter One Over All took his stake earnings to more than $300,000 when he outstayed his rivals in the Wagon Apollo Trotters Free For All.
Greg Sugars circumnavigated the field to find the lead with 1200 metres to travel but was joined shortly after by the $3.10 equal favorite Aldebaran Vera.
One Over All withstood the challenges in the home straight to score by two metres from Mercenary and Aldebaran Vera.
Sugars conceded One Over All wasn’t the smoothest trotter in full flight.
“When he really stretches out he’s an ungainly sort of a trotter but very rarely does he make a break in the run or late in a race,” Sugars said.
“For all his quirks he’s a lovely horse, he’s a bit of a character around the stables- he’s a bit different but he’s done a super job,” he said.
