Trots Centre: Moran and "rock hard" Lochinvar Art tuned to Minute

While the expectations of some might have thirsted for more from Lochinvar Art than two wins from four starts this campaign, trainer-driver David Moran's satisfied that all’s in order for the date that matters most.

“We’ve just got to get through the runs … and have him absolutely spot on for the 10^th of October,” Moran said of the fast approaching $300,000 Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup.

The race looms large in the thinking of camps heading into Saturday night’s TAB Minuteman Free For All, with some like Cruz Bromac and Lochinvar Art looking to apply the polish ahead of the Grand Circuit feature, and others like Sicario, My Kiwi Mate, Zennart, Rackemup Tigerpie, Tam Major, San Carlo and Out To Play trying to force their way into the field.

Lochinvar Art’s road to the Victoria Cup stretches back to July 25 when he won comfortably at Shepparton, includes a surprise second-up third placing when found to be suffering a minor viral infection, and then continued with a victory at Bendigo on August 22, when he turned the tables on Major Times and produced a 10-metre win.

No admirers were lost last Saturday when he overcame his outside-the-back-row draw to circle the field and get within 1.5 metres of Hurricane Harley, a winner in record time at Bendigo, and Moran faces a similar circumstance as metropolitan racing returns to Tabcorp Park Melton tonight.

The reinsman said the release of Victoria's feature race calendar this month had helped provide certainty.

“It’s starting to shape up really good now that everything’s set in concrete, everything’s confirmed and horses can travel,” he told Trots Talk. “It’s just made it a lot easier to wind them right up and have them 110 per cent ready to go com the 10^th of October.

“We hope to get through (Saturday night’s) run safe and everything goes to plan. Providing everything goes good he should be rock hard and ready to go.”

While he was eager not to get ahead of himself, it appears likely Saturday night’s run will be Lochinvar Art’s last before the Victoria Cup, with Moran hinting he’d likely skip the $50,000 TAB Smoken Up Sprint at Melton on October 3.

“That’s a tricky one,” he said. “You are probably going to have Ride High and a lot of the ones out of the Bendigo race, Clayton and Emma’s other ones (including Hurricane) Harley and whatnot, and then you are a chance of having horses like Reactor Now, Zennart, Cash N Flow’s a maybe.

“It’s going to be a very, very strong race. Probably the strongest we’ve seen for a while.

“We’ll see how we get through this week, whether we really need to back him up and really have him go through a speed burn the week before a 2200-metre Victoria Cup. I guess we will know more on Sunday morning.”

They are problems for another day.

Moran said he’d enjoyed the past few months as Lochinvar Art swapped headlines with Ride High.

“From a young kid, you always wished to drive or train these sort of horses,” he said. “It’s great, the hype and the pressure can build up a little bit at times, but you’ve just got to go about your work, keep things ticking over, keep them going the way they are.

“(The Victoria Cup) will be really good. We keep alluding to Lochinvar Art and Ride High, but you are going to add two or three of the Emma Stewart runners and obviously the Craig Cross runners, three or four of them, I don’t think it’s going to just come down to Ride High and Lochinvar Art.

“It’s going to be an exceptional race. It’s going to be so even across the board and so many great horses, I think it will be a spectacle for people and one of the best Victoria Cups we’ve seen in a long time.”

The TAB Minuteman Free For All streams at 6.30pm on Saturday night on Trots Vision at thetrots.com.au.

Race caller Dan Mielicki and on-track host Rob Auber will guide proceedings from the VHRC Parade Ring to the Winners’ Circle. The first race kicks off at 3.39pm with the last at 8.30pm, with the early finish enabling proceedings to wrap up ahead of the Victorian Government’s 9pm curfew.

The first three races will show on Sky Racing 2, with the remainder of the card scheduled for Sky Racing 1. There will also be extensive radio coverage on SENTrack, where Jason Bonnington and Blake Redden will chase winners throughout the night, and RSN 927.

TALKING TROTS ON SENTRACK:

Join Jason Bonnington and Blake Redden from 3pm to 9pm on SENTrack, which airs on 1593AM in Melbourne, 1539AM in Sydney, 657AM in Perth, 801AM in Gosford, 96.9FM in Ingham, 99.1FM in Atherton and 1575AM in Wollongong.

Click here to listen live and for links to download the SEN app.