3 minute read

Alenquer will race for the first time as a gelding while also wearing blinkers in the Underwood Stakes.

Trainer Mike Moroney is looking to Alenquer showing the form that earned him equal second top-weight in the Melbourne Cup when he resumes at Caulfield. 

Alenquer lines up in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes (1800m) on Saturday, his first run as a gelding. 

The French-bred galloper was gelded after two moderate runs in the autumn, finishing last in the All-Star Mile and Moonee Valley and last in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick. 

Moroney said the signs from Alenquer this campaign had been positive, apart from one jump-out which the trainer has excused which was conducted on the inside grass at Flemington. 

"His jump-outs have been good, although he threw in one that was a little bit questionable," Moroney told RSN. 

"But his work here on Tuesday was very good, so he's turned it around on the track and if he can take that to race day, I'm sure he will run very well. 

"Some can take a little bit longer when they've been left longer as stallions to get over it, but the signs with him are good." 

Moroney has also applied blinkers to Alenquer's race day gear. 

Alenquer wore blinkers twice in France, but over-raced in them, including when midfield in the Prix de l'arc de Triomphe at Longchamp last October. 

But Moroney said the prospects of tracks on the firmer side during the spring are likely to be advantageous to Alenquer. 

"One thing is does look like is a firm tracker, which is going to be good because we are going to get a pretty firm deck I would think over the spring," Moroney said. 

"I just want to see him running on (on Saturday) and doing things right. 

"He has just wanted to go about it all wrong and not really put in when he was a stallion. 

"His form suggests he is a long way better than that and we've just got to get him back to that form. 

"We're hoping this is the start of it and we're just hoping he brings his trackwork to the races."