PONY WEEK PAYS OFF FOR BUFFALO RIVER

Buffalo River rewarded the stable for a week of leisure with a strong win in today’s Group 3 Moonga Stakes over 1400 metres at Caulfield.

Buffalo River had finished a game second last Saturday in the Weekend Hussler and with the prospect of his favoured soft ground Mike Moroney elected to race the import on the quick back-up and after a quiet week of hacking off the stable pony Buffalo River proved Mike right with a three-quarter length defeat of King Magnus to notch his first win at stakes level.

"We had a bit of a look at the forecast and decided we'd back him up even though we hadn't done it before, with all the rain," Moroney said.

"It fell into place, but it was a good, tough win because I always look at the horses that take you on in front and they all dropped out and he boxed on really well so I thought It was a good, tough effort.

“He’s got some options here over the Flemington carnival so we will see how he comes through this and make a plan, possibly up to the Cantala Stakes but we will see how he pulls up first.”

Jye McNeil said Buffalo River relaxed nicely for him in the run.

"He was actually quite relaxed in the early stages but being caught out wide from that draw I had to roll to the top and I wanted to do that gradually so that we didn't use ourselves up too much," McNeil said.

"Once we got to the lead, he was pretty controlled and then it was just a matter of not making him sit-and-sprint.

"Moving him into the race, although he was peaking over the last 50 metres, he'd done enough to win the race."