By Neil Evans
Moskeeta has become the star of a battling stable and can take her winning strike rate to 35 per cent at Monday’s home Coffs Harbour meeting.
The flying six-year-old mare boasts a career record that most country gallopers would envy, and given how lightly raced she is, it threatens to climb even higher.
Racing heads to Coffs Harbour on Tuesday.Credit: Fairfax
Moskeeta’s importance to Cathleen Rode can never be understated, even though the veteran trainer holds the honour of winning the first NSW Country Championship Final at Randwick in 2017 with the late gelding Free Standing.
Fast forward several years, and Moskeeta has provided six of her last seven wins stretching back an incredible 31 months.
Now the daughter of all-conditions sire Your Song is aiming for a seventh win at only her 20th start when she tackles the feature Benchmark 82 Hcp over 1205m.
In fact, Moskeeta hasn’t finished further back than second in her last five runs since May.
It’s hard to believe she had two stable changes before making her debut for Rode back in June 2022. Yet it didn’t take her long to find that winning feeling, going back-to-back at Grafton and Coffs a few weeks later.
But Moskeeta appeared to lose her way later that year before a big setback saw her sidelined for a year from early 2023.
Somehow the extended rest gave way to a much tougher and more fleet-footed galloper.
Moskeeta roared back with a string of wins up to BM 66 level, either side of tackling feature races including a Saturday Class 3 at Doomben, and a regional Country Championship Qualifier.
And she reminded everyone of her versatility last start at home against a similar BM 82 line-up when a change of tactics saw her ridden in front before bounding away to win by three lengths.
Moskeeta opened around $3.60 favorite in early betting in front of Gold Coast raider Light Of Boom ($4.40) and Armidale-based Extreme Merger ($5.50)..
Maher has trio set for first The Lakes
Ciaron Maher is preparing for a three-pronged attack on the inaugural running of the $500,000 The Lakes (1600m) at Wyong next week. Little Dance winner St Lawrence, who has been freshened up since running sixth in the Group 3 Festival Stakes, will spearhead Maher’s team which will likely include nine-year-old warhorse Junipal and Supernova placegetter Chorlton Lane. St Lawrence is due to contest a 1200m barrier trial at Newcastle today alongside 2023 Little Dance winner Spangler who may be among his Wyong rivals. The Lakes coincides with the 150th anniversary of racing at Wyong and will be the club’s first stand alone Saturday meeting on January 11.
Ryan happy with Amazing Eagle’s path
Trainer Gerald Ryan feels he’s made the right move by saving Amazing Eagle from Saturday’s Randwick meeting for Tuesday’s Listed Gosford Guineas (1200m) run at Wyong. The colt hasn’t raced since the end of November when he was narrowly beaten on a heavy track in Brisbane and Ryan said the run was full of merit in defeat given he didn’t appreciate the conditions. “He copped a black eye and it took about six days to get him right,” he said. Ryan has designs on the Magic Millions with Amazing Eagle so the stakes are high in the Guineas. “If he’s going to be any chance at the Gold Coast he’s got to be hard to beat,” he said.
