Jan 1 - winner no.1 for 2014!

It is always nice to kick off a New Year with a winner - especially one at Flemington where the happy owners of Murcielaga were delighted cheering on their talented four-year-old to a barnstorming victory.

With favourite Longeron looking the winner with 200m to go, it was up to Murcielaga to give chase and he did just that - really sprouting wings over the final stages to salute at nice odds.

"It was a really good win," Michael Moroney said, noting that he has always had plenty of time for the good-looking son of Testa Rossa.

"We went to the meeting thinking he'd be hard to beat," he said, happy that the four-year-old had bounced back from a below best performance at Caulfield at his previous outing.

"It just wasn't the real Murcielaga that day," he said.

Hopefully the winners will continue into 2014 and whilst we don't have any city runners this weekend we do take a couple of decent chances to the Stony Creek meeting on Monday.

Tempest Rock is the first of those and hopefully he can break his maiden in the Centrebet Maiden Plate.

"He has been a bit disappointing at times," Moroney conceded, "but he did not have the best of runs last start and he did run a better race."

"He has drawn nicely (barrier five) this time which should help."

Baqaat on face value also appeared disappointing at her most recent outing when last at Moonee Valley in mid-December.

"She was found to have a high white blood cell count," Moroney explained, "so she can be forgiven for that run - on her best form she should prove hard to beat."

Lining up in the Abingdon Market Handicap, Baqaat was an encouraging Pakenham second before her latest failure and a step up to 1780m on Monday will suit her.

At Yarra Valley on Tuesday we have just the one runner but another good chance in the shape of Air Striker who is due to contest the Imagination Play Handicap.

Drawn well in barrier three for Jason Lyon, the Pentire gelding was impressive saluting at Benalla last time out and has pleased us with his progress.

"It was a strong win," said Moroney, "and he has fared nicely since. He is in really good form and should again prove hard to toss."