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Top Of The Range Doubles Purchase Price

3 minute read

Savabeel gelding Top Of The Range took his earnings past $500,000, more than double his purchase price at Karaka in 2015, when he won Wednesday's $400,000 Bendigo Cup.

Trainer MICHAEL MORONEY  Picture: Racing and Sports

Representing the trans-Tasman stable of Mike Moroney, the $250,000 Premier Sale graduate recorded the fifth and most significant victory of his 27-start career.

With champion Western Australian jockey William Pike in the saddle, Top Of The Range emerged from the pack and flashed through the inside to score in the G3 feature over 2400m by a long head.

It was a deserved big-race breakthrough for the six-year-old gelding, who had run a close second in the G3 Coongy Cup (2000m) in his previous start. He also finished second behind leading Melbourne Cup contender and fellow Karaka graduate Surprise Baby in the G2 Adelaide Cup (3200m) earlier in the year.

"He's come of age," Moroney said. "He had a lot go wrong earlier in his career, heart fibrillation and things like that, but he's really matured now and he's a good horse to deal with."

Top Of The Range (Savabeel x Spiriting) was bred by Graham and Helen-Gaye Bax and sold under their Blandford Lodge banner.

A full sister to Top Of The Range was bought by Moody Racing for $240,000 in Book 1 of Karaka 2019.