By David Nagel
It takes a lot to impress Pakenham trainer Peter Moody and champion jockey Jamie Kah but you get the feeling both have a very high opinion of three-year-old gelding Daytona Bay.
The son of American Pharoah/Soubrettes, continued a very impressive start to his career with a convincing victory in the $130,000 K.A. Morrison Three-Year-Old Handicap (1400m) at Flemington on Saturday.
Kah sat the $2.10 favourite outside the speed throughout, before releasing a bit more rein at the 300-metre mark and racing clear for a soft win.
Daytona Bay has now won three of his four starts, with an unlucky third at Caulfield at his previous outing his only visit to the track without a return to the winner’s stall.
Kah, Moody and his assistant Katherine Coleman were all excited in the post-race wash up.
Kah showed genuine enthusiasm for Daytona Bay after chalking up a winning double.
“They’re really happy obviously, he’s very talented and that was only 50 percent of him,” Kah explained.
“He’s got a lot left, and I felt like if I sat up on him, he would have come back to a walk.
“He’s very big and raw and he’s still a big baby so there’s plenty to look forward too.
“Pete knows what he’s doing with him, but I just said to him you’ve got a very talented horse on your hands.”
Coleman was also happy to see Daytona Bay return to the winner’s list after being caught wide and then shuffled back at Caulfield.
“It was really nice to see him do that today, he’s still putting things together a little bit and everything went awry last start so it was really nice to see him bounce back from that and win,” Coleman said.
“We’ll just take him home and see how he comes through it…let him tell us if we go on with him or give him a little freshen up and then maybe look towards the spring for a couple of nice races there.”
The win of Daytona Bay followed an earlier placegetter for Moody, with his five-year-old mare Rusutsu finishing well for third place in the $75,000 BenchMark-70 Rising Stars Final (1600m).
Jockey Carleen Hefel settled Rusutsu well back in the field, before winding up late to fill the placings behind It’s True and the Danny O’Brien-trained Pitchanun.
