Sensational Sandown Double

Ballymore's good recent run continued at Sandown on Wednesday where we cheered on two impressive winners - Surpass and Rhythm To Spare.

Making his Australian debut, Surpass (pictured, photo by Darryl Sherer) overcame trouble in running to record one of the easiest wins of the day.

Settling mid-field before being shuffled back at the 800m, the Savabeel gelding at the top of the straight was brought to the outside of the field by apprentice Jordan Childs - and from there he simply stormed home.

Racing away to win by 5¼ lengths, Surpass won the fourth race of his 17 start career and what was particuarly impressive was that the win came at his 12th run this campaign.

"He has been up a long time so we don't know how much longer a preparation he will handle," Michael Moroney said, "but we will charge on at this stage."

Raced by Paul & Shirlie Ryan and Ballymore Stables, Surpass is one of five winners produced by his winning dam Surprise, a Bakharoff half-sister to the 1000 Guineas heroine Savoir.

The win was a special one with it being the first metropolitan winner for Jordan Childs whose father Greg we had such a great relationship with.

"Greg and I have always been good friends and we had a lot of success together," Moroney said, "so to give Jordan his first winner in town is terrific."

Greg's first winner was for the Moroney stable as was his final ride.

Later in the day Rhythm To Spare - whilst his margin was a much shorter one - was just as impressive saluting over 1400m which is short of the trips at which we expect him to excel.

Having his first run since a Queensland Derby fourth in June, the Pins four-year-old did a bit of early work out wide but still travelled nicely for Glen Boss.

Four wide into the straight, Rhythm To Spare let down nicely, quickly gobbling up his rivals.

"He has always looked a very smart horse," Moroney said, amazed that one of the sectionals recorded by the gelding was an amazing 10.4 seconds.

Likely to have a light spring - with a lightweight crack at the Group One Toorak Handicap one possibility - Rhythm To Spare is a horse who improve all the more next year.

"We don't want to over-tax him," adding that "the autumn is going to be better for him."

Congratulations to owners R & C Legh Racing (manager Rupert Legh), the GG Syndicate Ltd (manager Gerard Peterson), John O'Neill, Carty Racing (manager Brett Carty), Andrew Dunne, Mark & Jody Pejic, Grant Devonport, J Lee, M & E Dominello, B D Nettlefold and Roberto & Anja Scheriani.

Saturday sees us saddle up four metropolitan runners in Melbourne and Sydney - Muirfield our sole runner at the Rosehill meeting where he contests the TAB Rewards Handicap.

"A bit of rain would help him," Moroney said, looking forward to seeing the Don Eduardo gelding back up to the 2400m.

"The rise in distance will help him and we thought he ran well fresh on a track that was just a bit too firm for him."

"He just got left flat-footed when they sprinted that day so the longer trip will be a help. It is just a pity he didn't draw better."

To jump from barrier 11, Muirfield will be partnered by Blake Shinn.

Two of our three Caulfield runners are imports, the first of those being Mourasana who lines up in the third event, the Hocking Stuart Handicap.

Racing below her best in two Queensland runs, the six-year-old has however had further time to acclimatize and has overcome a set back of a tendon issue.

Improvement is expected of her this time in although we expect to see the best of her over longer trips.

Our other import Araldo lines up in the same race - the Listed Heatherlie Handicap - as our other runner Zabisco.

"It will be nice to get him going," Moroney said of Araldo who was due to race a couple of weeks ago, held back by a slight hiccup.

"He is a lovely horse," he said, happy that Glen Boss has chosen to ride him having been taken with his track work.

"His best form is over longer and from barrier 20 he will need a lot of pace on but Glen thinks he is pretty smart and he has always been a good judge."

Zabisco (gate four) has fared better in the barrier draw and he can improve sharply on his unplaced first up run.

Running a similar race first up last time in, the son of Zabeel won the Wodonga Cup second up.

"He comes to hand pretty quickly as a rule and he has good form at this distance range and he likes Caulfield."