Racing: Tinseltown earns trip to Brisbane

Stablemates Tinseltown and Monaco Consul are still both being considered for the Sydney Cup in two weeks.

However, the pair are more likely to be aimed at the Queensland winter carnival.

Tinseltown came back to the form we know the talented stayer can produce when he made the opposition look ordinary in the $35,000 J Swap Te Aroha Cup on Saturday.

Matamata trainer Paul Moroney is keeping an eye on Sydney's weather forecasts to help make the decision on a Sydney Cup attempt.

"We'll just wait and see, but if there continued to be rain over there then next weekend you could make the decision to go.

"He's the sort of horse you could give one gallop to, put him on a plane and he'd be ready."

If Tinseltown misses the Sydney Cup he'll go to the Brisbane Cup, a race Moroney strongly suspects brought about the heart strain in the Pentire stayer that subsequently affected his form. Tinseltown won the $150,000 Rotorua Cup in May last year when the race was transferred to Te Aroha because of track renovations, then headed straight to the Brisbane Cup.

"He hadn't raced for six weeks and struck a bottomless track in the Brisbane Cup.

"It was either that race or his first-up race in Melbourne that gave him the quite serious heart strain.

"He went a beaut in his first run in Melbourne in the spring then threw in a shocker in the Metropolitan in Sydney.

"We discovered the strain when we had him examined after the Metrop."

Tinseltown was treated, brought back to New Zealand and aimed at the Auckland Cup.

"He developed back issues and they really only cleared up shortly before the Auckland Cup.

"He'd been a bit unlucky in the Auckland Cup the year before, but this time raced a bit handy and didn't quite get the cut in the track he prefers.

"That race really brought him on though and his work leading into Saturday had been first class."

Moroney said there is no chance Tinseltown will go into the Brisbane Cup with a six-week gap again.

"He likes his races well spaced, but if he doesn't go to Sydney, he can go to Brisbane and have one, possibly two, races there in May as a lead-up to the cup."

Monaco Consul bounced right back to something like his best form with his third in Saturday's A$1.3 million AJC Derby.

"We are very proud of him," said Moroney.

"He didn't exactly get all favours either. The race was run at a muddling pace then a horse came back on him at the 800m and he was pulled to the outside to make his run.

"He got right to the outside of them wide on the track and when that happens he turns his head and stares at the other horses.

"It was only in the last bit of the race that he got going again properly and he really rounded it off.

"Everything he does suggests the 3200m of the Sydney Cup will be his friend.

"The problem we have is that the Melbourne Cup this year will be run for more money than ever before.

"At the moment he's probably going to get in with a very nice weight, but if he happened to win a Sydney Cup at the Melbourne Cup distance ..."

Should the Victoria Derby winner miss the Sydney Cup he will accompany Tinseltown to Brisbane with the Queensland Derby as his main target.