Palace Tycoon primed for a first up Moonee Valley win

The Peter Moody trained two year old Palace Tycoon is primed for a first up Moonee Valley win in the $80,000 ADAPT Australia Handicap on Saturday.

Jockey Luke Nolen will be aboard first starter Palace Tycoon at Moonee Valley. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.

Jockey Luke Nolen will be aboard first starter Palace Tycoon at Moonee Valley. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.

Palace Tycoon made trackwork watcher take notice when he scored an easy win in an 800m barrier trial at Cranbourne on November 10 and followed that up with some handy trackwork at Caulfield since.

“The colt looked well above average when winning a Cranbourne barrier trial on November 10, pulling away by two and a half lengths, with more in the tank,” Caulfield trackman George Lucas wrote in his Sportsman column.

“He worked nicely on Tuesday morning over 800m, stopping the clock at 51.51s and 36.67s the last 600m.”

“Fit and ready to run a race here.”

The Testa Rosa – Palace Glow colt will be wearing winkers when he lines up for his debut with top jockey Luke Nolen to ride and will jump from barrier seven in the in the field that has been reduced to nine runners after two early scratchings, the Danny O’Brien trained Ragazzo Del Corsa and The Big Dance from the Danny Curran stable.

Bookmakers have keep the Peter Moody trained youngster safe in the betting and he has been installed the second favourite at $3.40 behind the John O’Shea trained Bantam, the top pick at $3 with Ladbrokes.com.au.

Miss Idyllic from the David Hayes and Tom Dabernig stable is next in the betting at $6 just ahead of the Colin and Cindy Alderson trained Miss Gidget at $6.50.

Bantam has the experience of one race start and O’Shea expects a better showing from the Exceed And Excel colt after he was beaten just over four lengths when fifth as the $2.60 favourite to Prompt Return in the Group 3 $150,000 racing.com Maribyrnong Plate (1000m) at Flemington on November 8.

O’Shea has a high opinion of Bantam and if he races up to expectations on Saturday will map out a Blue Diamond Stakes program.

Saturday will tell us whether we are aiming a little too high or whether he’s a legitimate chance of competing in one of the Diamond lead-ups,” O’Shea told Racing Network.

He’s a horse of some ability and I felt he wasn’t afforded a true opportunity to show his ability the day he ran.”

“We want to give him another run. He’s come through his first start well and we wanted to give him the chance to run around a bend.”

The first of the Blue Diamond lead up races is the Listed $120,000 Sportingbet Blue Diamond Preview (C&G) (1000m) at Sandown on January 26 followed by the Group 3 $150,000 Blue Diamond Prelude (C&G) (1100m) at Caulfield on February 14 with the Group 1 $1m Sportingbet Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) run at Caulfield on February 28.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.