HARLECH BACK TO CUP WINNING FORM

Harlech gave us back-to-back wins in the Benalla Cup on Friday with a gritty victory.

Ballymore Stables won the race last year with Hang Man, the 2019 edition of the race run over 2046m, compared to the 1406m this year.

Harlech had ruined his chances in Group 1 races this spring by over racing and Mike Moroney added earmuffs and removed the tongue-tie to coax the best out of the Darci Brahma entire.

Settled three pairs back with cover by Daniel Stackhouse, Harlech swung wide to challenge around the home turn and then finished determinedly under his big weight to assert his superiority over Reine Happy close home.

Mike Moroney was delighted to see Harlech return to winning form.

“To be honest I could not work out why he had run so poorly in his two races here as his trackwork was telling me he should have been competitive,” Moroney said.

“He didn’t help himself by over-racing so we made a couple of tweaks to his gear, pit the earmuffs on him and he was better today.

“He got a great ride from Daniel Stackhouse and then had to dig in to get the job done which was good to see. He was the best horse in the race but still had to give the runner-up five kilos so it was good to see him get back to winning form.

“Talking to Daniel he said the horse relaxed lovely and was strong through the line and 1600 metres might be better for him.

“There’s a few options for him coming up but we’ll see how he come through this and make a plan.”