Wall Street heads to Bendigo

from Racing Victoria... With a limited number of options open to him, Mike Moroney is likely to back up Wall Street in the Yalumba Golden Mile (1600m) at the Bendigo stand alone meeting on Saturday, following his unlucky third at Flemington last weekend.

Wall Street looked ideally placed under the set weights and penalties conditions of the Group 2 Blamey Stakes (1600m) but was held up for clear running for most of the straight before running a close third.

Once clear and balanced up over the final 50 metres, he hit the line strongly but by that stage, the race was all over with Puissance de Lune which had also been held up, grabbing Budriguez on the line to dead heat.

If he had got clear and got his momentum going I think he would have certainly run past Budriguez, Moroney said.

With the Festival Of Racing now into its final weeks, the normal course for a horse of Wall Street's ability would be to head to Sydney and or Brisbane but Moroney's dilemma is that Wall Street races well below his best in the right handed direction.

With Wall Street having only been tested over the final stages on Saturday, Moroney said the eight-year-old had come through the race very well and as long as he continued to please him, he would head to Bendigo.

At Bendigo, Wall Street, the only Group One winner in the Golden Mile field, has been allocated 60 kilograms, 1.5 kilograms more than second top weight Precedence.

Moroney is hopeful of gaining a start in the First Light Racing Bendigo Guineas (1400m) with lightly raced three-year-old Bishops Castle.

The son of leading New Zealand sire O'Reilly was placed at his only start as a two-year-old but after two placed efforts in maiden company during the spring, Moroney elected to geld him and give him a little more time.

He just wasn't doing things right in the spring so we decided to geld him and it seems to have been beneficial to his racing, Moroney said.

First-up in a maiden at Sportingbet Park, Bishops Castle went straight to the front and defied all attempts to run him down.

Saturday's race will be a much tougher assignment but Moroney said Bishops Castle had trained on well and is capable of running a forward race in the $150,000 Guineas.