Harrison mulling next move with Moxie

[Wandering Eyes]

Moxie (Strasbourg) gave trainer and part-owner Ken Harrison his biggest thrill in racing at Ellerslie last Saturday when recording his first stakes win in the Gr.2 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Classic (1400m), and now he is eager for more.

“We are over the moon, it was a great result,” Harrison said.

The Cambridge horseman said his four-year-old mare has come through the race in great order and he is now weighing up his options with the daughter of Strasbourg.

“She has come through it great,” he said.

“We may give her one more start before she goes for a bit of a break until next season. I am mulling it over at the moment.”

Harrison is weighing up between the Gr.1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1400m) at Trentham on March 28 and the Gr.3 Manco Easter Handicap (1600m) at Ellerslie next month.

While eager to test his mare at elite-level, the location of each race is a key factor for Harrison, with his mare not having ventured out of the northern region before.

“She likes Ellerslie and there is one more back there, the Easter Handicap, but we have just got a few things to weigh up and sort out,” he said.

“She has never been away from home yet and she knows Ellerslie.”

Weight is another factor that has entered calculations, with Moxie’s rating increasing to 96 following her Group Two win.

“We have gone up 18 rating points, but we have just got to take that on the chin. That is where she is now so that is what we have got to race against,” Harrison said.

“The Group One (Breeders’ Stakes) is weight-for-age, so we know what weight she is going to get there.”

While mulling over her final assignment of the season, Harrison took a moment to reflect on her career to date, which now stands at five wins from 11 starts and nearly $500,000 in earnings, and he is rapt that she has fulfilled the promise he saw in her as a yearling at Karaka where he purchased her out of Lyndhurst Farm’s draft for $10,000.

“We only paid $10,000 for her so it has worked out quite well,” Harrison said. “I loved the way she was walking and she had a nice temperament. Shelley and Mark (Treweek, Lyndhurst Farm) are very good friends of ours and have always done a good job over the years.”

While impressed with Moxie from the very beginning, Harrison said she has taken time to mature and he has taken a patient approach with her, which is now paying dividends.

“She has been very good from day one,” he said. “She was a little bit immature at the start and it has just taken time. We missed most of her three-year-old season to let her mature.”

While mulling over Moxie’s next steps, Harrison is looking forward to heading to Pukekohe on Friday where five-year-old gelding Tampa (NZ) (Vespa) will make his raceday return following a two-and-a-half-year absence.

The five-year-old son of Vespa had three unplaced runs for trainer Clinton Isdale in 2023 and Harrison said the gelding has been given time to mature.

“He is only lightly raced and had a couple of years off,” Harrison said. “I think they thought he was a bit immature and put him out on my uncle’s place at the back of Taumarunui.

“He has had one trial at Tauranga a couple of weeks ago and went very well, he came third.”

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