RACING
By samuel darroch
PETER Gelagotis’ Moe stable scored back-to-back $100,000 victories over the Cox Plate weekend, when Esprit Rossa and the recently maligned Hvasstan saluted on Friday and Saturday respectively at Moonee Valley.
Five year-old mare Esprit Rossa claimed victory in the 1600 metre Drain Man Country Cup on Friday night, while Hvasstan bested a quality field to take out the 2040m Drummond Golf Handicap the following day under Sydney jockey Hugh Bowman.
The metropolitan triumph put an end to an indifferent string of results for Hvasstan, who beat out Bel Thor ($6.50) and dark horse Grand Sai Wan ($31) to silence mounting criticism on the Fastnet Rock colt.
“When you’ve got a good horse and a good CV and they’re out of form, it’s human nature, people immediately say ‘he’s finished, he needs to be gelded’ or all of the clich they use in racing,” Gelagotis said.
“To the horse’s credit he showed guts and determination and a lot of tenacity to hold them out. He was very strong on the long.
“I thought it was a very tough, gritty, gutsy win, it was nice.”
Gelagotis put Hvasstan’s indifferent patch down to a disliking for the harder surfaces, and a change to bar plates proved a shrewd move as the group winner hit the lead with 300m to run.
“Unbeknownst to us he’s been jarring up on the hard tracks and it didn’t really come to the surface until his last run,” Gelagotis said.
“We pulled a gear change and that was the difference; he was able to stretch out and get back to his best.”
Gelagotis said Hvasstan was unlikely to back up for this weekend’s group one race at the McKinnon Stakes as the trainer adopts a cautious approach to the four year-old.
The Gippsland stable will target either a similar race on Emirates Stakes day or a group three run in the Eclipse Stakes at Caulfield for the star horse’s next outing.
Another Gelagotis-trained galloper Mourinho, who won the corresponding Drummond Golf Handicap last year, registered a fourth place finish in the group two 2500m Moonee Valley Cup in its first attempt at the distance.
