Dual acceptor Loyalty Man will take his place in the $1m Woodford Reserve Magic Millions Cup (1400m) at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
Loyalty Man, above purple and yellow colours, will take his place in the Magic Millions Cup at The Gold Coast. Photo by Steve Hart.
Loyalty Man was also included the field for the $100,000 Marouba Mile (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday but trainer Mike Moroney said the promising four year old would be heading to the Gold Coast.
“We will come up here,” Moroney told Racing.com.
“We were forced to pay up in both places. The only thing that would have stopped us from coming up here is if we drew the outside gate but we haven’t and we have drawn well enough.”
“We will come up here and take our chance.”
Loyalty Man drew barrier eleven in the original draw and is likely to move in two spots to nine if there are no more scratchings.
The Darren Weir trained Kenjorwood and Joe Cleary’s War Jet are early withdrawals from the Magic Millions Cup allowing the first two emergencies Brewery and Monsieur Gustave to gain a place in the field while two of the remaining emergencies have drawn inside of Loyalty Man.
The Magic Millions Cup has attracted a strong field with last year’s winner Lucky Hussler looking for back to back victories but Moroney is happy to test Loyalty Man against tougher company after winning his last two outings.
Two starts back he won the $90,000 Wodonga Cup (1590m) at Wodonga on November 25 and backed that up with a win at Canterbury in a 1550m BenchMark 93 Handicap on December 31.
“It’s a good field but he is an up and comer and he is well weighted,” Moroney said.
“He has got a better record at a mile but saying that he is an on speed horse and he has enough barrier speed to put himself into the race.”
Ladbrokes.con.au have Loyalty Man as one of the outsiders of the Magic Millions Cup at $26 while the Darren Weir trained Lucky Hussler heads the market order at $3.50 just ahead of the in-form Tony Gollan trained Most Important at $4.20.
Lucky Hussler has had a freshen up since his last start win in the Group 3 $150,000 Kevin Heffernan Stakes (1300m) at Sandown November 12 and Weir is happy with his progress heading to the Gold Coast while Most Important is looking to extend his winning streak to four after collecting a hat trick of win with his victory in the $150,000 Buffering Quality Handicap (1300m) at Eagle Farm on December 31.
