By Neil Evans
One of the more talented sprinters along the mid and northern NSW coastline is primed to recapture her early career form at Thursday’s feature Coffs Harbour meeting.
Moskeeta, a lightly raced six-year-old mare in the local stable of Cathlene Rode, shoots for a sixth career win from only 19 starts when she tackles the feature Benchmark 82 Hcp Sprint over 1000m.
Racing returns to Coffs Harbour on Thursday.Credit: Phil Carrick
Third-up this prep, a win for Moskeeta would not only take her overall winning strike rate to better than 30 per cent but also put her in the frame for a Highway assault in Sydney on December 14 or 28.
Even with a sound record behind her after ending the winter prep with a solid BM 66 win at Grafton, Moskeeta has seemingly returned a stronger-finishing galloper.
In both the Jacaranda Cup Prelude and the Cup itself at Grafton, she roared home from a long way back to miss narrowly behind the smart Single Touch.
Given a four-week break after that, she reloads in a similar competitive BM 82 sprint, but even better suited on a track with a longer straight where she’ll have more time to balance up and charge over the top.
And with 3-kilogram-claiming jockey Millie Thompson back aboard, Moskeeta emerges as one of the best-weighted runners across the eight-race card.
Certainly, if forecasted rain arrives and the early Soft 5 rating is downgraded, she looks ideally placed being a daughter of prolific wet track sprint sire Your Song.
In the late winter of 2022, Moskeeta emerged as one of the most promising sprinters in country NSW.
She won her maiden at Grafton before thrashing a good Class 3 field at home, running almost as quick a time that day in Soft 6 going as the winner of the feature Showcase Daniel Baker Sprint.
But while it’s been stop-start since, she’s continued to remind connections and punters of what she is capable of in truly run sprints.
In a robust betting race, Moskeeta opened a narrow $4.80 favourite in early markets, just in front of another six-year-old Cecil Street Lad ($5.00) who resumes for the Kristen Buchanan yard at Wyong.
Lighter weighted duo and two more six-year-olds, Heir Apparent and Monte Drifter were on the next line around $6.50.
