Having already left a sizeable mark in Queensland in the sale ring, staying mare Nerve Not Verve (NZ) (Shocking) is poised to do something similar on the racetrack on Saturday when she has potentially her final race start in the Gr.2 Brisbane Cup (3200m).
A Group Two winner, Nerve Not Verve fetched A$220,000 at last month’s Gold Coast National Broodmare sale when picked up by Cambridge Stud, but it was not so much the rising eight-year-old’s sale price that left a large impression after she’d been presented for sale.
“She put on a bit of a performance at the sales, which she can do,” explained trainer Mike Moroney, who had the mare returned to him to prepare for Saturday’s A$400,000 race.
“It’s the first I’ve seen as she actually kicked the back of the rostrum and put a hole in it just below where the auctioneer was. She was really cantankerous.
“Something clearly upset her. They couldn’t hold her and she burst out of the ring once and they got her back in and then she kicked out and it was a decent bash too.”
Moroney suspects Nerve Not verve can eclipse that memorable moment with a well-earned 3200-metre win on Saturday, despite being ranked around $26 with Sportsbet.
“She was pretty luckless not to win the Auckland Cup (in March) in what was one of the best two-mile runs I’ve seen for a while,” Moroney said.
“Then in the Chairmans, Dean Holland rode her perfectly in both that race and the Sydney Cup, but he ended up having the stick knocked out of his hand at the 250-metre mark of the Chairmans and that probably cost him winning.
“She ran bravely again in the Sydney Cup, but I think that might have been trainer error as, looking back, her grand final might have been in the Chairmans.
“She’d been to New Zealand and back and then after her Chairmans run, I backed her up the following week and she raced on tired legs for mine.
“I might have been better running her straight into the Sydney Cup.”
Moroney also saddles up Bankers Choice (NZ) (Mongolian Khan), a $35 chance in the G2 Q22 (2200m) in Brisbane on Saturday.
“I really can’t fault him, but I suppose the best chance of him winning would be if we got rain, as he likes it and it would also put a few out,” Moroney said.
“He’s as well as we can get him. The other day (Doomben Cup), he flew the gates and got across with Zaaki after drawing wide.
“The jockey (Brodie Loy) came back and said the horse got struck over the head by a rival’s whip and that he felt as though he was going to go past Zaaki at that point.
“He dropped right out but on the line was starting to run on again.
“I think he’ll win a nice race whether it’s this campaign or the spring.”
