Fine Dane proved that he is maturing into a class sprinter at Saturday’s prestigious Cox Plate meeting, taking out the Strathmore Community Bendigo Bank Hcp over 955m in terrific style, to score his fourth win from fourteen starts.
Ridden perfectly by Patrick Moloney, the Danerich gelding settled down outside the leader in running and kicked off the home turn with gusto, storming home to take out the race by 1.5 lengths on the line to the James Cumming’s trained, Esperance.
With good support going into the race following his close second to talented galloper, Tavisan, in the Apache Cat Classic at Cranbourne last start, the four-year-old didn’t disappoint. With a previous habit of wanting to race a bit “upside down”, John Moloney said that the gelding is finally starting to mature and “do it the right way around”, which means that the talented galloper has a bright future in front of him.
It is always special to win races on big days over the Spring Carnival, but it is extra special when family members are involved- and Saturday’s win would not have been possible without Patrick’s brilliant ride on the day, and his involvement throughout the gelding’s education.
With all going to plan, John will now look towards setting Fine Dane for the Absolut Stakes over 1000m at Flemington on Oaks Day.
Congratulations to John and the Matthews Family, and all of the hard-working team behind the scenes at Moloney Racing!