Winning Horse: Virtuous Circle (NZ)

2yoC Almanzor (Fr) - She Is Stryking (Aus)(Stryker (Aus))

2 starts - 1 wins $72200

Race Result:

1st: Virtuous Choice (L Howley/F Kersley) - $61

2nd: Do It La (P Moody/B McDougall) - $2.20F
3rd: Highland Harley (L Howley/D Bates) - $31

Winning Time: 1:32.51 Last 600m: N/A

Margins: Short-Half-Head x 2L

Winning Trainer: Liam Howley

Expensive buys for first and third: “We went to market to buy the horses we wanted. That was the motto going in early and we’ve had some great support from some great clients and I guess they were unfavoured but internally that first-up run was super. He did exactly what we wanted him to do and he’s come on since. While we weren’t confident, we knew he’d run well today. Both ran super.”

Tempted to go to Sydney.: “We’ll get them home and won’t make any plans. Today was probably the end of the road, but you never know. We’ll get them home and have a look. This bloke has continued to improve and there is no excuse to stop on him. He eats everything in sight, he’s a beautiful mover. We call him Koby internally as he’s the rockstar of the operation.

“The other bloke ran really well too. We’ve got some great clients in him too. He was probably the first horse we brought at the Melbourne sale last year. We got some new clients into the stable and it’s a really good result for the team.

“It’s our first two-year-old winner too.”

Winning Jockey: Fred Kersley

Be a nice three-year-old, but now he’s a nice two-year-old: “He is. Last time out at Pakenham he didn’t have a clue what it was about. Today we were forced to go back from the draw. Throughout the run, the tempo was a little stop-start and it made it very difficult for us to find a rhythm. Even though we had the rail, it was tight going for a horse having its second race start.”