Bankers Choice for Mike Moroney and John Allen has won the Listed Ballarat Cup, finally breaking through for his first win in Australia since making the trip across the ditch from New Zealand.
The five-year-old gelding has been running in very good races this preparation, including the Group 1 VRC Champions Stakes and Toorak Handicap as well as the Group 2 Crystal Mile, so the drop back in grade to the Listed Ballarat Cup was perfect for this luckless galloper.
Bankers Choice jumped as the $3.30 second favourite with online bookmakers and he was too good for the race favourite, Atishu, and Sirileo Miss who was the leader for the majority of the 2000m event.
Ballarat Cup Replay
Mike Moroney has now won the Geelong Cup and Ballarat Cup in the last month, after having his Geelong Cup winner, Emissary, run second in the Melbourne Cup, so it is fair to say his stable is in very good form.
“He’s a very smart horse, who’s very quirky, but he has good ability,” Moroney said post-race.
“He did quicken up very well and this is the first Ballarat Cup I’ve actually won.
“He’s a really tough horse and you’ve gotta treat him that way.
“I was a bit worried about him in early in the spring because he wasn’t himself and he was working a bit below what he usually does, but he did turn the corner when the weather did.”
John Allen has won another Ballarat Cup, taking his tally to three in the $500,000 race.
“The horse had the form on the board and I was pretty confident that he would be hard to beat.”
Allen thought that Banker’s Choice was the best horse in the race and he was right.
“The race went to plan early and he actually began with them today and relaxed good.
“But when we got to the 600 (metres), his wheels started to paddle a little bit and I thought I was gone for a little bit.
“Once I got into him and asked him to respond, he really did and he responded for me.”
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