Trainer Mike Moroney has revealed that he is happy with the condition of imported stayer Voleuse De Coeurs ahead of her return to racing in the 2014 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on Saturday.
Voleuse De Coeurs will have her second race start in Australia in the 2014 Australian Cup at Flemington this weekend. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Voleuse De Coeurs made her Australian racing debut with a tenth place finish behind Fiorente in the Melbourne Cup before spending a month in the spelling paddock and Moroney believes that she has taken plenty of benefit during her preparations for her autumn campaign.
Moroney told Racing Ahead this morning that his team elected to bring the Teofilo mare into the stable slightly earlier than they had planned and the Melbourne Cup winning trainer is confident that has helped her settle in to Australia.
“She is very bright and looks well,” Moroney said.
“This is the first time that we have had her in the stable from scratch and I would say that we are still learning a fair bit about her.
“We didn’t pre-train her anywhere and decided to bring her straight into the stable because she hadn’t spent much time in our stable and I hadn’t spent much time we her as well.
“We decided that needn’t to do that and it worked out well.
“That is the one thing about the European horses; they don’t see the paddock much at all and she has loved being in her box.
“You will see her a little bit bigger than she has paraded before; the only time she has been out was Melbourne Cup day.
“She had put on weight, but there wasn’t much of her then and she is a stronger mare now.”
No horse has won the Australian Cup first-up in the past thirty years, but Moroney said that he wanted to give the five-year-old her first start over 2000 metres rather than put her under pressure over a mile – a distance she has not competed over since her second race start in 2011.
While Moroney believes that Voleuse De Coeurs would have been outpaced over a mile, he is hopeful that she will be able to settle over 2000 metres and take advantage of what he believes will be a quick tempo.
“It will just be nice to see what she does over a mile and a quarter because her European form has all been over a mile and a half and further,” Moroney said.
“I think that main thing is to get through this run without hurting her.
“I think that she could over a mile and a quarter, but anything shorter I doubt that I could.
“I think that the thing that is going to help is that it looks like it will be truly run, but it is not a big field.
“That is going to really help her.”
Voleuse De Coeurs will have the opportunity to step-up in distance during the 2014 Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival; with both the Group 1 The BMW (2400m) at Rosehill Gardens on April 5 and Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m) at Royal Randwick on April 19 on the agenda for the Irish St Leger winning mare.
