TAB Eureka Watch on Captain Hammerhead
DAVID Moran will forever feel some unfinished business at Menangle.
Winning then being stripped of the 2021 Inter Dominion pacing final on Expensive Ego still burns deep.
Add to that a couple of second placings in the Miracle Mile – Lochinvar Art (2020) and Expensive Ego (2021) – and Moran feels like he deserves a really big win at Sydney’s home of harness.
The Victorian trainer-driver hopes Captain Hammerhead can be the horse to do that in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 7.
The son of Captaintreacherous contested the inaugural TAB Eureka last year, but found it beyond him as a three-year-old, finishing ninth to Encipher.
Moran is itching for another crack and insists Captain Hammerhead will be ready this time.
“He’s really matured now,” he said. “He won ‘The Singo’ last year, but it was largely on raw ability.
“He had that Sydney campaign and another for the Chariots earlier this year and they’ve really helped him develop and go to another level.
“Look at him this campaign, three wins from his past four starts (at Melton) and he absolutely jogged-in last time in quick time despite doing the work.”
Getting Captain Hammerhead up and going early to get him in front of slot holders was Moran’s aim.
He’s optimistic one of the remaining six slot owners without a confirmed runner will snap-up the four-year-old.
“I might be biased, but I’m absolutely certain he’s well inside the top 10 hopes for a race like this,” Moran said.
“I would swap him in a heartbeat for most horses being talked about for the race. Take a horse like The Lost Storm, who has a slot, I think he’s equally as good or better than him.
PHOTO: Stuart McCormick
“I’d love to be part of it (TAB Eureka) again. It’s become a great race very quickly and I know I’d be taking a much better and more mature horse into it than I had last year. I’m sure he’ll be very competitive with any of them.”
Moran, like the connections of so many key TAB Eureka contenders, is aiming towards a Brisbane winter raid with Captain Hammerhead.
“He had those five Melton runs after coming back from Sydney and showed how good he was, so I gave him a few days off,” he said.
“He’ll run on the 15th (of June) or 22nd and then I’ll just look to trial him in between that and when he heads up (to Brisbane) for the Rising Sun.
“I’d love to get picked-up for a (TAB Eureka) slot before that, but he’s going so well, I think he’ll make his own case in Brisbane if nobody has taken him before then.”