A wet ground and he’ll be right as rain
TRAINER Mike Moroney believes The Good Fight can defy his rating as an outsider in Wednesday’s Geelong Cup but will need wet ground if he is to start.
Moroney has hinted the seven-year-old, who is considered a $19 chance, will be a scratching if there is no rain in the lead up to the 2400m contest.
The Bureau of Meteorology is only forecasting possible light showers in the next 48 hours and the trainer said The Good Fight would be taken out if it was a good surface.
“Our horse, he does want rain to be at his best,” he said.
“We’ve got a few Cups coming up and we know he’s been up for a while and we can’t go on with him forever.
“If it does get back to good and we don’t get any more rain, there’s a chance we might come out and take our chance somewhere else.”
The gelding has won four times from 18 starts on soft ground and has a win and three placings in four attempts on the heavy.
The Good Fight ran seventh in The Bart Cummings on October 2 in an effort Moroney graded as unlucky.
“His last run he lacked a bit of luck; he probably should have run fifth and it would have been a good run from where he was, but he just didn’t get quite clear space at the right time,” he said.
“He got stopped a couple of times in running on a firm track that was against him.
“I thought he went really well considering and he’s just a far better horse when he gets a bit of rain.
“The key to him is getting wet ground.”
The Good Fight is down the list on the Melbourne Cup order of entry but Moroney still has the Flemington feature in mind.
“We’re still in there,” he said. “It (order of entry) is starting to fall away a little bit and it will fall away even further I would think.
“We did say to the owners we would put him in wherever it was going to be wet.
“There’s plenty of opportunities and we might get the right one on wet ground.”
OUR HORSE, HE DOES WANT RAIN TO BE AT HIS BEST.”
TRAINER MIKE MORONEY, LEFT