Tough Mare Makes her Mark with Winning Run

Townsville trainer Michael Geaney thinks From This Moment is a “diamond in the rough” after the mare scored another stunning win at Cluden Park on Thursday.

Geaney won the 2018 Townsville Cup with Lady Skills and was talking Cups after From This Moment claimed her fourth straight win in the Ladbrokes Open Hcp (1400m) with Adam Sewell in the saddle.

“We’d like to get another win to get her rating up a bit more where we can put her away and get a program into her aimed at the cups,” Geaney said.

“She’s won at a mile, she ran second over 1800m in Mackay and I’m pretty confident she’ll get the 2000m.

“We don’t have a big budget where we can go out and spend up on horses, we’re just hoping for a diamond in the rough.

“One of my owners Julian Schroder bought her on line for $5000 and I have to admit I wasn’t impressed to start with.

“But I liked her from the first time I saw her and she’s really turned out a great buy.

“She’s won $90,000 in prizemoney and is still on the up.

“She’s taken a long time to mature but I said a year ago give me six to 12 months and she could be one of the best horses we’ve had.

“She was just very frustrating early on. She was doing more wrong then right in her races and just getting too far back. Adam (Sewell) was very good in helping to sort those problems out.

“She’s really getting it all together now with four wins in a row, three of them in this prep.

“We were reasonably confident today.

“I looked at her times and sectionals and with the light weight I was pretty confident she’d be able to mix it with them.” 

Sewell enjoyed his best day in the saddle since returning three months ago from injury with a winning double.

He scored earlier on Brave Agenda in the Ladbrokes BM60 Hcp (1609m) to give Charters Towers trainer Rob Kirkwood a welcome change of luck.

Kirkwood and his uncle Brian bought Brave Agenda as a replacement for their good three-year-old Reliable Witness who they lost during the winter carnival.

“She didn’t cost a lot but she’s tough and done the stable a bit of justice,” Kirkwood said.

She’s been a replacement for the other fellow and she’s won two for us now.

“When we lost the three-year-old I thought my uncle might give it up it was so disappointing. He’s never raced a tried horse but he found her and away we went again.”

Kirkwood, who is also president of the Towers Jockey Club, said work was continuing to resolve long running problems with the track surface.

Two sections are being trialled with a blend of finer graded sand in an effort to create a firmer surface suitable for racing.