News

Rod Northam's odyssey from Gunnedah to the Caulfield Guineas

9th Oct 2015

Eden Magnet - By Chris Roots - Thursday 8 October 2015

Scone trainer Rod Northam had a Muswellbrook double on Monday and will send out a handful at Gunnedah on Saturday, but he will be with Odyssey Moon in Melbourne in an attempt to lift the Caulfield Guineas trophy.

The Snitzel colt has had his preparation based in Melbourne for this day, leaving Northam to shuttle between his Scone base and Odyssey Moon.

"I have had someone with him all the way along but I have been coming down and back," Northam said. "The goal with him was to get him to this race at 100 per cent at his fourth run and I think we have done that. I have been happy with his lead-up runs and I think he is a live chance."

During the first half of Guineas day, Northam will keep an eye on the results from Gunnedah, where he is a chance of winning the Manilla Cup with Off The Bottom.

"I thought she was quite good first-up and it seems a nice race for her. I'll be in Melbourne but the stable keeps running and we are just about to crack up for the summer," he said.

Northam is a horseman and brought Odyssey Moon for $25,000 as a yearling to take him to the breeze-up sale.

It was a wise investment when the late Dr Edmund Bateman paid $120,000 for him. The Scone trainer told the purchaser that he had bought the Golden Slipper winner after the sale and was offered the job to get him there.

He looked right when at his first start Odyssey Moon flew late to win the Inglis Nursery at Randwick in December, returning the purchase price and bit more and since he has amassed more than $450,000 but no more wins.

"They all can't be Black Caviar and win all the time. He is really honest racing against the better company," Northam said.

Odyssey Moon was the only horse to run in the three legs of the two-year-old Triple Crown last season. He wouldn't fulfil Northam's prediction in the Golden Slipper, where he was a creditable eighth, and then reached a career high as the Sires' Produce Stakes runner-up before a sixth in the Champagne Stakes.

The Scone trainer decided to target the Caulfield Guineas with the colt after his juvenile year. The best way to do that was to base him in Melbourne.

"We just thought it was the best way to get him to the race. Just keep everything the same," Northam said.

He was good late in the Mitchell McKenzie Stakes at Moonee Valley in August, then a closing fifth behind Bon Aurum in the Exford Plate at Flemington and again in the Guineas Prelude at Caulfield.

"I thought his last run was really good because he didn't really get around the turn," Northam said. "The draw probably doesn't help him but I would like him get some cover and I think he will be really finding the line."