Ballyroan winner Nickajack Cave to join Peter Moody

Horse Racing

Nick Robson
August 11, 2020 11:30 am

‘The Melbourne Cup is our sole target’, says Black Caviar’s trainer.

Nickajack Cave has run his last race for Ger Lyons and will join Peter Moody in Australia with the Melbourne Cup as his target.

Moody is famous for his handling of record-breaking sprinter Black Caviar, but has never won the Melbourne Cup.

Nickajack Cave has won both his outings this season, most recently the Group Three Ballyroan Stakes, and was being considered for the Irish St Leger.

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He has been bought by a syndicate which includes some of Black Caviar’s former owners and the deal was agreed before his Ballyroan success.

“The Melbourne Cup is our sole target,” Moody told www.racing.com.

“There was a suggestion that he would run in the Irish St Leger but we were worried that if he won that it might have given him too much weight in the Melbourne Cup, so we’ve decided to bypass that race.

“It’s more than likely that he’ll go straight into the Melbourne Cup without another run. We’ve got staff that will take him into quarantine, he’ll stay with Ger until mid-September and then the staff will take him into quarantine in Newmarket afterwards until he travels to Melbourne where my staff will take over at Werribee.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity and fingers crossed we can have a faultless prep.”

“The owners are dead-set keen on the Melbourne Cup but you always hope this sort of horse develops into a nice 2000 to 2400-metre weight-for-age horse post the (Melbourne) Cup and he appears to have the right profile.”