POLAND STRIKES FIRST-UP TO CLAIM A GROUP 2 WIN

By Graham Potter | Saturday, February 6, 2021

Poland was turned out in perfect order first-up by trainer Mike Moroney and the colt was good enough to put a Group 2 win behind his name when he landed the Autumn Stakes over 1400m at Caulfield.

Poland had the drop on the two tearaway leaders early on with the field well and truly stretched out behind that and, when El Salto and Altai Ranger inevitably came back to the field, it left Poland in prime position, but he still had it all to do at the top of the straight where a wall off horses lined up to throw down their challenge.

Poland kept grinding away though, showing both commitment and courage, and he was duly rewarded with a very tough win, the second success of his career.

This was Poland’s first run since the Caulfield Guineas back in October last year.

“When I saw him parading on Caulfield Guineas day, I knew he shouldn’t have been here,” said Maroney. “He was all over the shop. He had lightened off and had sort of come to the end of it by then.

“But, look he has come back. He has evened up. He is a big powerful bloke and he has got a bit of speed for a So You Think, so he’s got a real future.

“We sort of came here today trying to work out if he wanted to drop back to 1200m next time or go up to a mile. Probably from what I have seem today the mile should suit. He is strong enough. But, like I said, he has got good speed so will probably go well over 1200m as well.

“Today, during the race I was thinking that we were getting a lovely run, but I knew it was going it was going to suit the back-markers, so I thought we would be pretty vulnerable in the first 100m of the straight, but he changed gear and kicked away.

‘it was a really solid win.”