Track will determine if the effort's worth it

Wed 8 Sep

Brilliant sprinter Reward For Effort will be an acceptor for Saturday's Group Three McEwen Stakes at Moonee Valley, but trainer Peter Moody says he is far from a certain starter if the track is significantly wet.

The Moonee Valley track was rated a slow (7) on Wednesday, an improvement on the heavy (8) the previous day.

Moody said the 2009 Blue Diamond Stakes winner was aiming for a second Group One win in the Manikato Stakes (1200m) at the Moonee Valley night meeting on September 24 and didn't need to run on Saturday.

The Exceed And Excel four-year-old entire hasn't seen Moonee Valley yet and the stable will consider taking him there for a workout leading up to the Manikato.

Reward For Effort was sidelined for 17 months after running seventh on a heavy track in the 2009 Golden Slipper after suffering a suspensory injury early last spring when set to resume in the Vain Stakes at Caulfield. - aap

But he has returned brilliantly with successive wins in the Monash Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield and the Concorde Stakes over the same trip at Rosehill in July-August to make his record four wins from six starts.

There were 13 entries for Saturday's weight-for-age 1000m sprint including the exciting Hay List, Catapulted, Arinos, Rostova, Keano and Morgan Dollar.

The Moody stable has delayed a decision on Ghostmilk who missed a run as an emergency in last Saturday's Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) at Flemington won impressively by Shocking.

Image by aap