News

Patient Moore camp playing it Smart with Giant

12th Sep 2011

South China Morning Post - Alan Aitken - Sunday, 11 September 2011

There was a moment passing the 250m of the Cotton Tree Handicap (1,400m) when the crowd moaned and a noose was being looped for the jockey Hong Kong crowds love to hate, Darren Beadman, but all's well that ends well and Smart Giant's raw talent was enough to get him out of trouble.

Beadman had stripped down to a light 119 pounds to ride the potential Derby horse fresh, but looked in trouble in the box seat when his main rival, Adoration, failed to find a kick and the odds-on favourite had nowhere to go.

"I wanted to follow Adoration because I thought he would boot away from the other leaders and a gap would come for me to get out off his back but he had nothing and I was stuck," Beadman said. "But Smart Giant did show a terrific turn of acceleration to be able to come across the heels and get through to win. The Derby is a long way away so we don't want to put the cart before the horse, but he's headed in the right direction. It was pretty light for me so early in the season and it was worth it, but I did have to miss Jeff Lloyd's invitation for a roast dinner during the week."

Had Beadman been unable to make the weight, Lloyd had been placed on standby to ride the four-year-old, who was the runner that trainer John Moore had in "to get the monkey off our back."

"Darren and I thought he might be the one we could run and win with to get a score on the board. We won't have a lot now until next month and we didn't really want to be three weeks into the season without a win," Moore explained.

"He ran on the last day last season and was still pretty fit against a field where they mostly didn't seem to be that forward, so it could have been a bit flattering, but he did show a turn of foot that you like to see. I felt he had improved in the couple of months since last season and now we'll look ahead.

"He will run again over 1,600m on National Day and then have a short break - the good four-year-old races are a long way off and we want to give him his chance then."

Moore's brother, Gary had a hand in the purchase of Smart Giant, two days before his half-sister Daffodil won the Oaks at Randwick in Sydney, and was at Sha Tin for the win and with an extra reason for celebration in the Moore camp since last season.

"I was champion trainer in Macau when the season finished there the other week and John is champion here and that's the first time we have each held a title at the same," he said. "I think our late father George would be very proud."

Moore revealed Australian-based sprinter Happy Zero, an eye-catching run in Melbourne on Saturday first-up, would be ridden by Beadman when he runs in the Group One Manikato Stakes there on September 30, with the jockey making an overnight rush back for National Day.

"But the horse will stay under the training of John Hawkes and his sons, as they've done all the work to get him going again and they will bring him here for the international races if he is invited," Moore said. "Then I hope the Jockey Club will allow him to be transferred back into my yard, as they did with Daliapour going to Ivan Allan some years ago."

SMART GIANT ($160,000 2009 Easter, 4g Pins-Spring)

HAPPY ZERO ($425,000 2006 Easter, 7g Danzero-Have Love)

Photo: Smart Giant (c/- HKJC)