THE BACK STORY SUGGESTS TRUE MOONLIGHT'S WIN WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE IN THE HEINRICH RACING COLOURS

By Graham Potter | Monday, October 12, 2020

The Gillian Heinrich stable claimed victory in the QTIS Two-Year-Old Fillies Plate at Doomben last Saturday when True Moonlight, a daughter of Not A Single Doubt, outgunned ten rivals to score by a length on debut. It was only through a series of changing circumstances that True Moonlight remained with the Heinrich racing stable … an outcome that has already paid good dividends. Gillian Heinrich takes up the story.

“We bred True Moonlight.

“She was going through the Easter Sale with Arrowfield and then they pulled all of their horses because of Covid, so we brought her up here and put her through the June Magic Millions sale and sold her … but then she didn’t pass the vet examination.

“Hoss (Heinrich) said … don’t worry about it. We’ll give you your money back and just send her home.

“So, we brought her home. We got her broken in at Greg Bennett’s and educated.

“Then she started galloping and we thought … gee, you go alright.

“She is only little … I mean she is tiny … but she is a professional.

“Then we took her to the jump-outs and, like I said, she was just a professional from day one.

“She walked straight into the gate. Jumped straight out and led them up. No problems. At that stage we thought … um, you look handy.

“In her race win she did exactly what she did in the trials. We had course proper trials … which we used to have before they took it away from us. Now they have given them back to us.

“She won her trial. Somebody tried to head her there and she put her little ears back and fought on … which you like to see in a horse … and she did exactly the same thing in her race win.

“She galloped really well on the Tuesday … and put in that same effort on race-day … so, there you go.
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Heinrich also had a runner in the QTIS Two-Year-old Colts and Geldings Plate at Doomben last Saturday, in which her Star Witness colt Prime Asset, finished third, a length behind the winner Golden Eighty. Gillian Heinrich gives her views on that run, and the colts attitude in the preliminaries

“He was playing up in the parade ring.

“At home he hasn’t been like that. There is no drama. He works. There is no problem.

“In fairness, it was a windy day and there were a whole of them playing up to some degree. One starts and then it all starts … but we will give some thought to his behaviour.

“And then, as James (Orman) said … from the 700m he had to dig, dig and then dig again which you can’t do with babies.

“So, all this considered, finishing third so close up was certainly not a bad run.”

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