Weekend warrior adds another

[Chief Stipe]

Monaco and Trudy Thornton combine for another win at Ellerslie today, holding off Together (side-winkers), Jip Jip Rock (blinkers) and Nuclear Fusion.

Stephen Ralph has an easy answer to the secret behind his iron horse Monaco, who added another win at Ellerslie today when lining up for the fourth consecutive weekend.

“It’s all about recovery,” said the four-year-old’s trainer. “The fitness takes care of itself when they’re able to race as regularly as him, and so long we get the recovery right they can maintain their form.”

Monaco, a younger brother to Ralph and owner-breeders’ Stuart and Cherie Hope’s Sistema Railway winner Santa Monica, began his purple form patch with a maiden victory at Matamata on February 3.

Thirteen days later he repeated in Rating 65 grade at Ellerslie and since then there’s been no letting up in his busy schedule. A week later on February 23 he finished second at Matamata, he returned to Ellerslie the following weekend for third and he capped it all with a half-length win in today’s PGG Wrightson/Vetmed 1400.

The chestnut’s four previous starts had been over 1200metres on tracks ranging from Good3 to Slow7. The step up to 1400 metres today combined with a downgraded Heavy 10 track might have found him out, but Monaco had other ideas.

Regular rider Trudy Thornton let him stride to the lead halfway up the straight and although the challengers were coming fast over the final 50 metres, Monaco was still a half-length in front at the line from Together, who took second narrowly from Jip Jip Rock and the pacemaker Nuclear Fusion.

Ralph elaborated on what he refers to as his “different” training methods, outlining Monaco’s weekly routine.

“After two, maybe three, days off after racing on Saturday, he’ll go on the walker Tuesday or Wednesday, do a bit of trotting and if his weight says so, maybe have a bit of a gallop on Thursday morning.

“The main thing though is the recovery – get that right and everything else falls into place.”

The curtain came down on Santa Monica’s big season when she finished third in last Saturday’s Waikato Stud Plate, but as usual it will be the recovery period that will decide Monaco’s immediate future.

“We’ll check him out over the next couple of days and then make up our minds,” added Ralph. “Stuart mentioned a stakes race somewhere that might be his next target, so we’ll just wait and see on that.”

 

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