Tag Archive for: Moon Target

Moon Target team optimistic for the future

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Moon Target remains under consideration for some major end-of-season prizes, despite suffering defeat for the first time in the Prestige Stakes at Goodwood late last month.

Sir Mark Prescott’s filly looked a hugely exciting prospect when making a winning debut at Newmarket in mid-July and she was just as impressive on her second start at Yarmouth under a penalty.

She was a hot favourite to complete her hat-trick at Group Three level on the Sussex Downs, but was under pressure some way from home and was eventually beaten three-quarters of a length by Aidan O’Brien’s Irish raider Precise.

Moon Target in the parade ring at Goodwood
Moon Target in the parade ring at Goodwood (Steven Paston/PA)

“She ran well and it was the first proper race she’d been in really because in her first couple of races she just sort of dictated,” said Chris Richardson, managing director of Cheveley Park Stud.

“Things didn’t quite go her way as she was slow out of the stalls and got a bit of a bump and was caught wide. The winner had a dream run and we were always on the back foot.”

Moon Target holds big-race entries in the Rockfel Stakes and the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket. When asked whether those high-profile contests could be on the agenda, Richardson added: “I wouldn’t want to step on Sir Mark’s toes, but we’ll certainly be discussing those sort of races and see where we go.

“I think a step up to a mile will benefit her and I wouldn’t mind trying her on slightly easier ground. The sire (Cracksman) produces horses that go on soft ground and there’s a bit of a Pivotal influence there, so we’ll see.”

Another Cheveley Park-owned juvenile filly who could test her powers at Group-race level before the season is out is the Andrew Balding-trained Imperial Ballet, who bolted up on her introduction at Newbury last week.

Richardson said: “We were very pleased and pleasantly surprised as she’d never been on the grass, so we weren’t really expecting a huge amount.

“We haven’t really thought about plans for her yet, but we will probably creep away I would expect with a view to having a little dart at the Oh So Sharp Stakes in October, maybe.”

Prescott has Prestige plans for exciting Moon Target

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The exciting Moon Target will take a route Sir Mark Prescott knows well when she heads to Goodwood for the Virgin Bet Prestige Fillies’ Stakes later this month.

The Heath House youngster has shone brightly so far and having enhanced her reputation at Yarmouth, now heads for the Group Three event Prescott won with Red Camellia in 1996, but also saw his Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine Alpinista beaten in 2019.

“All being well she will run in the Prestige,” said Prescott. “I managed to get Alpinista beat in the Prestige though, which seemed like the end of the world at the time but turned all right in the end.

“It is amazing when you look back now and think how on earth did that get beat there, but she did.

“You don’t want to be disparaging, but I don’t suppose they were world-beaters Moon Target beat at Yarmouth. However, she did it well didn’t she and she appears to be very relaxed which is such a great help.”

It has been hard not to be impressed by Moon Target’s progress to date, as she built on the taking nature of her debut win at Newmarket by scoring by an even wider margin in her second start.

Asked at what point he knew he had a smart horse on his hands, Prescott said: “Not until I worked her, I liked her much much more once I worked her as she always went very very well without apparently doing anything.

“Initially I thought the others must be very bad because of the way she just did it, so she’s been interesting and I think she caught everybody by surprise when it turned out at home she could go.”

Sir Mark Prescott is still at the top of his game
Sir Mark Prescott is still at the top of his game (Mike Egerton/PA)

With one Prestige Stakes for Moon Target’s owners Cheveley Park Stud banked almost 30 years ago, the daughter of Cracksman’s rise to prominence gives Prescott the chance to continue his long association with the leading owner-breeder operation.

He added: “I’ve been a while without one for Cheveley and I had a marvellous run for them with Pivotal, Red Camellia who actually won the Prestige, and Hooray, who often gets forgotten and was champion two-year-old filly.”

Moon Target could also help Prescott in one of the few frontiers he has yet to conquer, with a Classic victory on home soil towards the top of his wish list for his remaining years in the training ranks.

Currently as short as 16-1 for next year’s 1000 Guineas and 20-1 for the Oaks, Moon Target is proving a huge asset to ensuring the Heath House master’s enthusiasm still burns brightly and could bring dreams of glory in next season’s biggest races into range if excelling on the Sussex Downs.

“I’ve never trained a winner of the Cesarewitch and I’ve never trained a Classic winner in Britain, they’re the things that need doing,” continued Prescott.

“I’m still motivated and if you are a trainer the goals remains the same all the time, as long as you retain your enthusiasm and your marbles. If anything it becomes more important as you know you are running out of time.

“Horses like Moon Target are what keeps everyone going and she looks good at the moment and we’ve got to hope everything goes right with her, but you can’t be disappointed so far.”

While Moon Target has already advertised her talent, waiting in the wings at the foot of Warren Hill and still to make her debut is the latest graduate from one of Prescott’s most successful lineages, Alpinara.

A sister to Alpinista and also from the family of multiple Group One-winner Albanova – as well as that one’s own sister, the dual Champion Stakes winner Alborada – she cost Kia Joorabchian 2.5million guineas at Tattersall’s prestigious Book One sale last autumn.

A bay, unlike her illustrious grey sibling who gave the Newmarket veteran one of his finest hours in Paris three years ago, Alpinara is steadily building up to her first racecourse appearance, envisaged to sport the Amo Racing silks for the first time in the autumn.

Salisbury Races – 13th August
Alpinista’s sister is still to make her debut

“She is very interesting because at the sales everyone was asking does she look like Alpinista and the answer was not at all, completely different,” explained Prescott.

“She’s better looking in fact, but nothing like Alpinista and more like Albanova who was the grandmother of Alpinista.

“Alpinista won as a two-year-old at Epsom against colts in July, yet this one looks like she will be September into October really.

“She seems to go well and has really come to life recently. We turned her out for three months after we broke her in and she’s been fine, but who knows at this stage.”