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| Staff Writer |
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Trainer Michael Moroney was victorious in Saturday's A$500,000 Listed Ballarat Cup with his former New Zealand galloper, Bankers Choice. Bankers Choice, ridden by John Allen, spent most of the race just in front of the halfway point.
Bankers Choice, which had looked to be in trouble coming into the final turn, found another gear when shifted to the better ground centre track, and easily defeated fellow ex-Kiwi Atishu by two and a quarter lengths. Moroney, fresh off his maiden Ballarat Cup victory, gushed, "He earned a beautiful win, he's a very smart horse." I've never been able to say that about myself before. It's been a long time coming, but I finally accomplished it. I did have a run at it back in the '90s when I first moved here from New Zealand.
Moroney said that Bankers Choice had shown remarkable improvement over the spring. He advised that, because he was a strong horse, the rider should treat him as such. I was concerned about him at the start of spring. A couple members of my team, including him, turned a corner later in the spring after initially not looking or performing up to par. If everything goes well, he'll head to the paddock soon, and then back to Sydney in the fall.
We'll probably plot out a training schedule for him in Sydney after he finished sixth in the Doncaster. Originally owned by Ross and Corrine Kearney, a farming couple from South Waikato, Bankers Choice was bred and raced by Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh and won five of his ten starts for Marsh before a controlling interest was sold to clients of the Moroney stable in a private transaction.