MOODY’S GREAT JUDGEMENT CALL

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Peter Moody has once again shown his true prowess as a genuine top class trainer.

This time his class was not on display in the surrounds of the winners’ enclosure with all of the fanfare that goes with a big race win, but it came via a judgement call which prompted a measured announcement detailing the fact that the mighty Typhoon Tracy is to be retired with immediate effect.

All too often, the temptation is there to go one more round, particularly when the runner has just added another Group 1 success to her resume, but Moody’s call shows the absolute respect he has for a horse that has championed his cause with such aplomb since she won her Maiden on debut back in September 2008.

That Maiden win was her only run first time in. Typhoon Tracy raced on four occasions in her second preparation winning all four starts.

That unbeaten winning sequence culminated in her first Group 1 win which came in the Coolmore Stakes in March 2009.

Typhoon Tracy then lost her unbeaten record when going down to Predatory Pricer and Whobegotyou in the 2009 version of the Liston Stakes.

It took her another three runs to regain her winning mantle but, when she did, she took off on another sequence which saw her annex another five straight wins in imperious fashion.

That run of success included four Group 1’s (the Myer Classic, the Orr Stakes, the Futurity and the Queen Of The Turf).

This year she finished second in the Myer Classic (behind Sacred Choice) before going out to claim her second successive win in the C.F. Orr Stakes when outpointing Heart Of Dreams in a tough battle for supremacy on the day.

That gave Typhoon Tracy her sixth Group 1 victory in twenty starts having earned just shy of $2 500 000 in stake earnings.

Speaking at the track directly after the win at Caulfield on Saturday, Moody said, “It’s hard to say if she is as good as she was twelve months ago or eighteen months ago, but, at home, she’s giving me the feel she still wants to be there.

“But, like I said earlier in the week, she’s not going to go around for the sake of going around. As long as she’s in the form that we know she should be then we’ll keep pushing on.”

But a few days after the race the picture had changed, as Moody explained.

“She gave her absolute all in that race and is still fatigued 72 hours after the run,” Moody said.

“She’s been amazing to me and I’ll be forever grateful for the success she gave me and her owners.

“We could have freshened her up for a tilt at the Brisbane Winter Carnival, but she’s achieved great things already so we’ve decided to retire her.

It was a great call from a great trainer about a great horse.

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