SAND NOV 13 - MACEDONIAN WINS SANDOWN CUP

By Taron Clarke | Monday, November 15, 2010

Sandown Hillside, November 13, 2010.
Track - Slow 7. Rail - True. Penetrometer: 5.48.
Sandown Cup Open Handicap - 3200m.
Time: 3-30.02. 600m Sectional: 37.50. (Carrying 53kg).
1 Macedonian; 2 Above Average; 3 Mourayan.
Margins: 2.3L x 0.2L.

The Melbourne Racing Club’s inaugural running of the 3200 metre Sandown Cup was won in impressive fashion by the Peter Moody trained stayer Macedonian on Saturday.

The race was well received by Victorian trainers with a final field of thirteen acceptors including the international top weight Illustrious Blue, who was coming off the back of a ten length ninth in the Melbourne Cup.

But the race went to an up and coming stayer down in the weights with a stout staying pedigree, Macedonian.

The son of Zabeel has always promised to have strong staying potential but, as is well documented with the Zabeel breed, they tend to get better with age and this is certainly the case with Macedonian.

Having his eighteenth racetrack start, Macedonian has now won five races including his last two and stakes earning’s over $230,000.

With an excellent form line through his Geelong Cup run behind Melbourne Cup victor Americain, punters sent the five-year-old gelding out as a firming favourite for jockey Luke Nolen.

Settling in a lovely trailing position throughout, Nolen brought the stayer to the middle of the track down the dip and the pair went on to score an untroubled two and a quarter length win over Above Average with a short neck back to Mourayan in third.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Peter Moody: “We can take the Sandown Cup off the bucket lis. It was a good tough staying effort and he has come good at the back end of the season.

“His metropolitan run was terrific in bad ground. Geelong Cup run was tremendous with a hard run and he’s won his last two, so we will lift the bar a little bit and probably head to South Australia for the Adelaide Cup in March now.

“We always had a bit more expectation of him to be honest, but he has taken a long while to develop.

“I think we’ll adopt a little bit of the European mould. He probably has six or seven runs a year and probably doesn’t run below a mile and a quarter again in his career … just sort of keep him ticking over that little bit and just keep going to these races that he is going to be suited in.

“Terrific ride and the horse did the rest. It’s a credit to both of them.”

Jockey Luke Nolen: “We were gifted a nice run and it sort of played to our strength a bit.

“Without being crazy it was solidly run and then we ground home and that plays to his strength.

“He was there to win and he won it. He is a progressive stayer down in the weights. They are always going to be hard to beat.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Macedonian): 4.20 into 3.80.
The winner was the favourite.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Persian Star was a late withdrawal at 9.46am due to the downgrade of the track.

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