Ballymore to deal strong weekend hand

With exciting runners covering three meetings across the weekend, Margin Trader (Tavistock) and Daniela Rosa (Dane Shadow) kick things off at Moonee Valley tonight in their respective races and trainer Mike Moroney couldn’t be happier with the pair.

“You should see a far more improved performance from Margin Trader tonight,”Moroney said.

“The good track will suit, he’s drawn well and on his work we see him as being a serious live chance.”

To be ridden by stable jockey Patrick Moloney, Margin Trader lines up in the Ranvet Handicap over 2500m in search of his fourth career victory.

Up and coming filly Daniela Rosa (pictured) has always been labeled as black-type class by her trainer and tonight she looks well placed to cement that opinion.

“She’s trained on very well and we’re expecting her to be hard to beat.”

“There are a couple of nice horses with black-type form around them, so we should be up to this quality of field.”

Moroney believes that spacing her races may be the key to her performances and, on the back of her work, will certainly make her presence felt in the Grosvenor Engineering Group Handicap over 1600m.

Onto a big day of racing at Caulfield on Saturday, Ballymore will present two runners including the hugely talented Tivaci (High Chaparral) who lines up in the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes over 1400m.

“He’s very well placed at the weights, drawn a good gate and it’s a reasonably even field,” Moroney said.

“You always need some luck in these Group 1 races, but we are very happy with where our horse is at – he’s trained on well – and he has to be a genuine chance.”

Tivaci will be again be ridden by Moloney and from the draw the team hope to see him posied up somewhere around midfield with cover.

One horse who Moroney states ‘shouldn’t be a maiden’ is Geodesic (Domesday) and he will have his opportunity to prove his ability when he takes part in the $250,000 Inglis Cup over 2000m.

“He’s far better than his form suggests and it’s just taken us a while to iron out some behavioral issues.”

“We’ve had to play around with some gear just to see what works for him and it would be great timing if we have got it right for Saturday.”

The final runner for the weekend is a three-year-old with a future, Milwaukee (Fastnet Rock) and will be looking to make it back to back wins in the Rating 64 event over 1535m at Geelong on Sunday.

“He’s a very nice three-year-old and could be one of the best in the stable,” Moroney said.

Milwaukee won on debut last month, when surviving a protest, and since it has been interesting to note that runner-up has gone on to win.