3 minute read
Trainer and jockey quotes following the Group 2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup won by Lunar Flare on Saturday.
Race Result:
1st: Lunar Flare (M Dee/G Begg) - $12
2nd: Floating Artist (T Nugent/C Maher & D Eustace) - $3.80
3rd: Sound (J Mott/M Moroney) - $26
Winning Time: 2:40.12 Last 600m: N/A
Margins: ½ Head x ¾L
It's Lunar Flare's Moonee Valley Gold Cup!
— Racing.com (@Racing) October 23, 2021
Terrific training performance from @Grahame_Begg. pic.twitter.com/j9kQuAQwlP
Winning Trainer: Grahame Begg
"It's absolutely outstanding. She's been a model of consistency right through, right from the time I got her. She took a bit to work out but keeps stepping up to the line.
"We had a few doubts with the track deteriorating a little bit but she's hard fit, came off a good mile-and-a-half run a few weeks ago and what a great job.
"We're so pleased to win for the connections. Great race to win, fair dinkum, a million dollar race."
What's next: "I didn't leave her in the Melbourne Cup because I thought at the time she'd got beaten when it was time to pay up and I thought it was a bit hard to try and run her in a Melbourne Cup after a disappointing run, but she's done her job up to now so we'll have to consider what we'll do.
"A Queen Elizabeth or something like that."
Winning Jockey: Michael Dee
"It was a great effort and most of all a massive effort by Grahame and his training team. She has been up for quite a long time now and to keep her at her peak and performing like she did today, it was a tremendous effort.
"At one point coming down the side I got onto FLoating Artist's back and decided to pop off when Pondus decided to take off. That horse had a good kick and I thought I'd follow it through and was too good."