A Winning Margin

One of the attributes Paul Moroney – one of Australasia’s best judges of the thoroughbred yearling – is most keen on is the presence of a great horse in a young horse’s pedigree.

He likes to be able to see that presence for himself – and there is no doubt that when you look at Margin Trader you can see the influence of his dam sire, the legendary Zabeel.

A son of Tavistock and a full sister to Might And Power, Mutual Trader really took Paul’s eye as a yearling at the 2013 Karaka Sale and his judgement is proving spot on with the three-year-old recording a most impressive maiden victory at Bendigo on Wednesday.

Settling back under the patient riding of Dwayne Dunn who rides our Melbourne Cup runner Araldo next week, Mutual Trader began his run before the turn – hooking out widest into the straight and quickly gathering up his rivals.

Racing clear to a 1¼ length victory – a margin which could have been all the wider if not for the horse racing greenly – Margin Trader won in the style of a horse really going places.

“He caught me by surprise by how quickly he picked them up,” Dunn reported, adding that “it is good when they can do that just on raw ability.”

“He is a horse we have always liked,” Michael Moroney said, noting that the bay first headed over from New Zealand with the VRC Derby in mind.

Tending to be colty he remained in work but was gelded – and the future looks bright.

“He is still a big baby,” said the stable’s Matt Hoysted. “He did a lot wrong and he still has a lot of improvement in him.”

“You can see looking at him that there is a lot of Zabeel there and the older he gets and the further he gets the better he is going to get.”

photo Colin Bull