Kevin Moses tamed the nasty feminine streak in hand-me-down My Sabeel – and reaped the rewards in the group 3 Toy Show Quality at Randwick on Saturday.
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"She was so cranky and she wanted to bite," Moses said of the mare when she first arrived in his small Randwick stable earlier this year. "Considering she hadn't won for 18 months before we had her, a lot of the credit has to go to my staff and [wife] Jenny.
"Jenny takes her walking of an afternoon and it's like if you get a cranky woman, they're cranky. And she was cranky when she came."
Glyn Schofield warmed up for his group 1 hit-and-run mission with Boban in the Memsie Stakes at Caulfield next week with a feature race double at Randwick. He earlier piloted Tiger Tees to a Warwick Stakes success after being released from the ride on Boban in the group 2 weight-for-age contest.
Schofield arrogantly parked My Sabeel ($9.50) three-wide throughout without cover, but the mudlark sprinted clear at the 200-metres to trounce the resuming Bennetta ($6) by four-and-a-half lengths. Angel Bee ($20) finished a neck further back in third.
"I've been quiet and haven't ridden much," Schofield said of the new season after he returned from nasty facial injuries. "[But] I'm heading south next week when Boban runs and it's good to go into that race with a bit of momentum.
"You can only present the horse as you can present her and Kevin presented her in great form. He picked the right race for her and he rolled the dice and it paid off handsomely for him and connections.
"She's been racing consistently well for a long time and if you want to pick a race for her to win I think connections would have picked this one rather than any of other ones she's contested."
My Sabeel had raced well without luck during winter, but as soon as Sydney's equally temperamental weather arrived Moses decided to have a throw at the stumps on a seven-day back-up.
"It's well above her grade, but she gets through the wet and these other fillies and mares she's running against ... I'm rock hard fit and they're not fit yet," Moses said. "She might not beat them the next time they race.
"I've only got a small stable at the moment and if anyone else has horses that earlier were good and they're not doing it [now], send them over. I've got plenty of room."
Grahame Begg praised the effort of Bennetta, which picked up late, as her trainer plots a path to the Golden Pendant.
"On top of the ground she's a much better horse and to do that on a wet track is outstanding," he said.
