By Trevor Marshallsea
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Matt Laurie is confident that doubting punters will see the real Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) when she strives to win him his first major in Saturday’s Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) at Moonee Valley.
Treasurethe Moment – the Yulong homebred the sales companies didn’t want – became a sensation of last season but has been one of the stories of the spring, and only 25-75 for the right reasons.
The four-year-old resumed taking on open class for the first time in Caulfield’s Memsie Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and produced a simply awesome display to lead home a nine-runner field by 2.5 lengths. Ten-time elite-level winner Mr Brightside (Bullbars) was second, with Buckaroo (Fastnet Rock) a further half–length away in third.
The spring looked her oyster after that ninth straight success and fourth Group 1, but the script has gone awry since.
She made headlines only a week later when she suffered a bout of colic, which required veterinary hospital treatment, and put her out of the Makybe Diva Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) on September 13.
The mare returned for her first look at Moonee Valley on the night of September 26 in the Feehan Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m). The $1.50 chance encountered only five rivals, perhaps scaring many away, but with Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai) allowed to execute her long-leading ways as she liked, Treasurethe Moment could only make minimal ground on that mare, in a 1.75 length second.
Only three rivals fronted up for Caulfield’s Might And Power (Gr 1, 2000m) to take on Laurie’s $1.60 favourite. But with Blake Shinn allowed to dictate a dawdling pace on Globe (Charm Spirit), that seven-year-old gelding stole the race, with Treasurethe Moment running a three-length second.
Those two runs might now have scared off punters, and Treasurethe Moment has slipped down the betting charts for the Cox Plate.
Ahead of Tuesday’s barrier draw, she was on the fourth line of betting at $8, behind last year’s demoralising winner and Yulong teammate Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) at $2, Tony Gollan’s Antino (Redwood) at $3.50, and Via Sistina’s Chris Waller-trained stablemate Aeliana (Castelvecchio) at $6.
Still, Laurie wasn’t overly disappointed with his mare’s latest two runs, and he feels that in a larger – though non-capacity – field with likely some more pace on, and with the effects of that colic bout now seemingly completely overcome, Treasurethe Moment will take a lot of beating.
“I think we’re right in it with a chance,” Laurie told ANZ News.
“She kicked off the prep with a bang, then had a hiccup, and then we’ve had to make our way back through two very small fields that have been on-pace dominated and with very little pressure applied to the leaders.
“So it’s been a bit hard to fully assess, but all I can say is she’s come through this last race well. The Cox Plate is the best race in the hemisphere, and I can’t find a reason not to go.”
Laurie said it had been difficult to gauge how much the mild colic bout had taken out of Treasurethe Moment, but indicated it needed to be taken into account when analysing her subsequent beaten runs.
“She’d had a month between the Memsie and the Feehan, and of that month there was probably a week where she wasn’t doing anything,” the trainer said of Treasurethe Moment, the November 1 foal who was kept to race by breeders Yulong after not making it into a sale for either Inglis or Magic Millions.
“She noticeably blew out a bit in that run against Pride Of Jenni.
“She was then bumped up to 2000 metres two weeks later, and it probably wasn’t run really to suit. There wasn’t much pressure applied to the leader, Globe, and he duly got away on us.”
With horses usually taking huge benefit from their first to their second attempt at the testing 2000-metre trip in a campaign, Laurie expects Treasurethe Moment to be a more formidable force this Saturday.
Aside from that, he’s encouraged by the formlines around her.
Since the Memsie, Mr Brightside has won the Makybe Diva Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) – beating Aeliana and Via Sistina into the minors – and run second in the King Charles III Stakes (Gr 1, 1609m).
Buckaroo has run Sir Delius (Frankel) to a 0.46 length second in the Underwood Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m), before finishing third in the Might And Power, 0.75 lengths behind Treasurethe Moment.
After the Underwood, Sir Delius cruised to a 1.75 length victory in the Turnbull Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), beating Antino into second and with Via Sistina a 2.2 length third. Sir Delius was then a short favourite for the Cox Plate before being ruled out by Racing Victoria vets.
“Treasure obviously hasn’t won her past two starts,” Laurie said, “but she hasn’t been passed, either.
“Buckaroo came out after the Memsie and wasn’t beaten far by Sir Delius, who would’ve been favourite for the Cox Plate. Mr Brightside beat Aeliana and Via Sistina home after we beat him.
“So you’d be hard pressed to argue that Treasure hasn’t got some sort of chance.”
Asked if Treasurethe Moment was back at her best, Laurie said: “We’ll know that after the race.”
Asked if she was in top health, Laurie sounded assured.
“Her data is good on the equimetre. Her blood’s back where it really needed to be. So we’re very happy with the horse,” Laurie said.
“It’s hard to know how much the colic took out of her, because it’s internal. But she’d kicked off the prep with a bang, and we were in a good place for the Makybe until the colic happened.
“I feel like she’s caught up a little bit as far as fitness goes now. She looks like she’s improved off her last run, and I’m more than happy to run her this weekend.”
Laurie ensured Treasurethe Moment would be at her top for the Cox Plate through a testing 1400-metre track gallop at home at Mornington last Friday. He said she would have a “tick over” gallop, also at Mornington, on Tuesday, rather than be taken into town for the breakfast trackwork and barrier trial function at Moonee Valley.
With the track set for its major redevelopment, this will be the last Cox Plate at Moonee Valley as we know it, with its often tricky, tight contours. Laurie said he was satisfied they posed no problems for his mare, whose four Group 1 wins have come between 1400 metres and 2400 metres.
“I thought she raced fine on it at her only attempt in the Feehan,” he said. “Plus, Mornington’s a similar shaped track and she’s fine there.”
Australasia’s classiest race is likely to have less than its capacity field of 14, with an expected line-up of around ten runners. Other contenders are set to include Globe, Buckaroo, and Waller’s Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Autumn Boy (The Autumn Sun) – in on the three-year-old males’ weight of 49.5 kilograms for Australasia’s weight-for-age championship.
Although she won last year’s Cox Plate in a phenomenal record time – crushing Winx’s 2:02.94 with a sizzling 2:01.07 – and by an equal-record margin of eight lengths, Via Sistina is another Yulong mare who’s been under a cloud.
Her spring pattern rings similar to Treasurethe Moment’s.
The reigning Horse of the Year resumed as an eight-year-old with a top-tier victory in the Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick, but has managed only thirds in her two subsequent runs, in the Makybe Diva and the Turnbull.
Laurie still has ample respect for the Irish-bred import, who’s now officially eight in Australia but still seven-and-a-half biologically, but the trainer – whose medium-sized stable is flying with five winners from its past 17 runners at 29 per cent – wouldn’t swap his mare for any Cox Plate rival as he strives for his eighth Group 1 win and a first major that would boost his operation greatly.
He’s come tantalisingly close in the recent past, when Coleman (Pierata) ran a 0.14 length second in last year’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), to Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon).
“What Chris [Waller] has achieved with Via Sistina is pretty amazing,” Laurie said. “But what Treasure’s achieved is pretty good too.
“I’m not worried about lining up against any of them on Saturday.”