Trainer Mike Moroney is preparing Gr.1 All Aged Stakes (1400m) winner Tofane (NZ) (Ocean Park) for what could be her swansong on May 22 in the A$175,000 Gr.3 BRC Sprint (1350m).
“We’ve decided to run in the 1350m after her first-up run, we just thought she’s lost a fair bit of her dash and starting to run to her breeding a bit,” Moroney said of the Ocean Park mare.
“She’s in the Gold Coast sale. I think the owners want to get a guide as to how she’s going so we decided we’d go 1350m and get a real guide because her Group One win came at 1400m.
“I know Doomben isn’t going to be exactly the track we’d like but we haven’t got any other option before the sale.”
Tofane trialed last Tuesday at Doomben, finishing third over 1000m.
“She trialed really well and had a decent blow, that will do her the world of good,” Moroney said.
Moroney said it would be a sad day when the Group One winner leaves the stable with the mare having banked more than A$1.3 million in prizemoney and won five of her 19 career starts.
“You never know, whoever buys her, she holds nominations for the Tatts Tiara (Gr.1, 1400m) and that so they might leave her with me,” Moroney said.
“Certainly if they do put her through it’s going to be sad to lose her, she’s been a big part of our stable for a while and for the racing she did, if we ever raised the bar, she was up to it.”
Tofane was bred by Curraghmore Principal Gordon Cunningham and did her initial education in Moroney’s Matamata barn under the care of co-trainer Pam Gerard.
She won an 820m trial at Te Teko before Ballymore Stable clients purchased her from Cunningham and she was transferred to Moroney’s Melbourne barn.
