STAKES PERFORMED TRIAL WINNERS AT CAMBRIDGE

Stakes performers Bocce (3 g Foxwedge – Whiffle, by Red Ransom) and The Boy Wonder (4 g Cape Blanco – Keep the Passion, Keeper) looked good winning their respective heats when trialling on Tuesday at Cambridge, ridden by Jake Bayliss.

Both trained by Mike Moroney and Pam Gerard at Matamata, Bocce was a debut winner before finishing third to Champion Two-Year-Old Avantage (Fastnet Rock) in the Karaka Million (Listed, 1200m) and fourth in the Sistema Stakes (Gr. 1, 1200m), while The Boy Wonder was a smart second-up winner over a mile prior to finishing second in the 3YO Salver (Listed, 2100m) at Ellerslie.

“Both have been gelded since last racing and I think it’s been the makings of The Boy Wonder,” said co-trainer Pam Gerard. “He’s let down nicely, and both of them are more focussed.

“They’ve been working extremely well. Their jump outs have been top-class and they trialled up to how they’d been working.”

Gerard said The Boy Wonder could now resume in the Rating 72 1600 metres on Matamata Cup Day, 13 October, and a plan would be hatched for 2000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m) nominee Bocce.

“The Boy Wonder is a horse with a lot of staying potential, which is why Mike & Paul (Moroney) bought him and they certainly know how to pick their stayers,” Gerard said.

“We’re pretty happy with Bocce, but maybe the mile (Guineas) could come a bit too soon for him. As a colt he always had beautiful manners to ride – soft and he would come back to you, but he also has quick gate speed. His manners are very good which will allow him to settle in behind them and the pedigree on his dam side suggests he can see out a mile no trouble.”

Bocce was selected by Paul Moroney and purchased for $105,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale, from the draft of Blanford Lodge. He is the fourth individual winner from Whiffle, twice a winner in the U.K., and a half-brother to Hollywood Angel (Dehere) who impressed winning twice to 1600 metres in New Zealand, where she acted best with some cut in the ground. Her first foal, Los Angeles (Rock ‘N’ Pop), has won twice up to 2100 metres.

Also selected as a yearling by Paul Moroney, The Boy Wonder was purchased for $85,000 from the account of Blackbridge, at the 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock Select Sale.