Racing: Sires quinella quells storm at Ballymore

David Walsh showed the value of experience as he guided Tusker to victory.

What started out as a horror week for the brothers Moroney has turned into pure gold.

It does not get better than a quinella result in a group one race.

There were a lot of reasons why Mike and Paul Moroney felt delighted when Jokers Wild and The One produced their 1-2 result in the $125,000 Ford Manawatu Sires at Awapunui on Saturday.

The brothers saw it as just what was needed to stop the bleeding from the two volatile weeks the Ballymore Stables has experienced around the departure of the New Zealand training partner Andrew Scott, who will be training with Lance O'Sullivan.

"We've had to put out a few fires this week," admitted Paul Moroney.

"There was a couple of groups of owners that wanted collectively to remove 10 horses from the stable and have them follow Andrew Scott.

"Mike came over from Melbourne and we've had meetings for much of the week with owners and all the other staff members that worked under Andrew Scott.

"We were able to quell a lot of the rumours that have been floating around and convince people that Ballymore has been based on Mike's ability for 25 years and that this quinella result proved that on an on-going basis things rely on a team effort and not just one or two people."

If you needed a pointer that the Moroney stable is experiencing a run of luck, Jokers Wild was six weeks ago looking at the castration and the spelling paddock.

Forget the $150,000 or so in stakemoney the colt has won since then, the two group ones he has collected as a colt mean something like a million dollars in stallion prospects.

There is little chance either Jokers Wild or stablemate The One will race again at two.

"A few weeks ago I deliberately resisted the temptation to nominate Jokers Wild for a couple of 2-year-old races in Sydney because sometimes if you nominate it becomes a big incentive to go ahead with what was only ever a tentative plan," said Paul Moroney.

Last week some thought had been given to taking The One to Sydney for the A$450,000 ($524,000) Champagne Stakes at Randwick on April 22.

But he is already marked down to have a good break and then go to Mike's Melbourne stable early to acclimatise and start a preparation that will aim at the Caulfield Guineas and Victoria Derby.

He would have to come through this race very, very well and even then he would still be only a remote chance to go to Sydney.

Michael Coleman is a great sport and took little from his decision to choose to ride The One rather than Jokers Wild on Saturday.

The respective runs the two horses got - predictable before the race - was the only difference between them.

The One covered ground three deep and never stopped trying after his stablemate, even though not for one stride did he look a chance of picking him up.

The One is still a baby, which showed in a couple of things yesterday, and is another reason why he should have a break now.

There will be no justice for Habana as he goes for a spell without winning a race. He has multiple placings in top fields and fought hard for his third.

Naturo was superb after being forced over a lot of extra ground and Imananabaa (7th) proved she could still be a star when she learns to race professionally.

The day was headlined by Jokers Wilds rider Jim Collett and David Walsh, both of whom have come back from retirement.

Collett sold real estate and more recently took a position with Ballymore to ride the trackwork of horses heading for major races to provide a final opinion on their progress.

Even more recently again, Collett has taken out a trainers' licence.

"I want to continue riding, just riding the ones I'm happy with," said Collett.

Walsh said a week ago he was delighted with his comeback. "I'm getting full books of rides - at some meetings I could have had two rides in every race. People are ringing me for rides two weeks out from the races."

Walsh has always been a wonderful big-race rider and it was evident in the patience he showed waiting for an inside gap in the home straight when Tusker appeared well bottled up in the Awapuni Gold Cup.

Tusker had been getting to the front too early in her races something Grant Cooksley believes cost her the group one Whakanui International, in which she yielded late to Snazzy.

Murray Baker has been able to keep the mare at her top and Walsh's patience and coolness to produce her at the leaders late were crucial.