Tassie galloper makes it count in Moe Cup

STAR Tasmanian stayer Count Da Vinci added another feature win to his growing list of credits when he gave his rivals a galloping lesson to take out the $150,000 listed Moe Cup over 2050 metres yesterday.

Count Da Vinci, winner of last year’s Hobart Cup, settled in the first halfdozen and when Tasmanian jockey David Pires asked him to quicken 500m from home the gelding quickly hauled in the leader, shot four lengths clear and went on to win by almost two lengths from imported Irish galloper Pacodali, with Tarquin a close-up third.

The son of Faltaat started the $3.50 equal favourite with Pacodali.

Count Da Vinci started this preparation in Melbourne and produced three eye-catching performances in lead-up races. The Scott Brunton-trained gelding was aimed at last week’s $300,000 Cran- bourne Cup but a slight setback forced connections to rethink the target.

West Australian owner Wayne Notman said Count Da Vinci had accomplished his mission.

“When he lost a bit of weight and Scott had to play catch-up with getting him right we erred on the side of caution and switched to the Moe Cup,” Notman said. “The horse was fantastic today and it looks like we made the right decision.

“I spoke to Scott after the race and he said the horse will be back in Tasmania as soon as transport can be arranged.

“We have a few things in mind but we definitely want to get him home and back to the beach environment that he loves.”