Moquett Saddles Two Maiden Winners on Churchill Card

Owner Harry T. Rosenblum campaigned two impressive Churchill Downs maiden winners in 3-year-old colt Tale of Honor on Friday and 2-year-old colt Far Right

  on Saturday, both of whom are trained by Ron Moquett, who indicated that patience had paid off for his owner.

 

“It’s one of those things where he’s had some nice horses in the barn and I had to keep telling him, ‘We can’t run just yet,’” Moquett said. “But I also told him, ‘I promise you it will all pay off,’ and it did. It was good that it happened back-to-back like it did, too.”

 

Far Right captured Saturday’s competitive 6 ½-furlong maiden contest as the 9-1 fourth choice in a field of seven juveniles. He began the race stalking the leader Risk Parity in second through the opening quarter and half-mile, then commanded the lead in the stretch and drew away five-lengths clear at the wire.

 

“Anytime you can run that well with that caliber of well-bred 2-year-olds, you’re proud of it,” Moquett said. “I was really proud, especially by the way in which he did it. I knew he had the ability.”

 

Far Right, a 2-year-old son of Notional, had made two starts prior to his maiden triumph, where he finished second in each. In his debut start at Keeneland he finished second to Conquest Tsunami, who has since won a pair of stakes events at Woodbine and in his second start was runner-up to Cinco Charlie, who went on to win the Bashford Manor (GIII) at Churchill.

 

“I thought the betting public may have let him sneak off,” Moquett said. “He had only been beaten twice, both times where he finished second to horses that went on to win stakes in Cinco Charlie and Conquest Tsunami. But at the same time, that was the kind of race where everybody had a shot. I was really pleased with him. You might line them up the same next week and something different could have happened, so I’m glad we got the win.”

 

Moquett was optimistic about the future of Far Right, although no official plans have been set just yet.

 

“We’re going to let him tell us how far he can go,” Moquett said. “If I had to guess, I’d say a mile, a mile-and-a-sixteenth or maybe even further. At this stage of the game, allowances don’t go very well. We’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.”

 

When asked if the Oct. 4 Breeders’ Futurity (Grade I) at Keeneland was out of the question for Far Right, Moquett said: “Nothing is out of the question at this point. We’re open to entertaining all options.”

 

As for 3-year-old Tale of Honor, who won his six-furlong maiden contest by 1 ¾ lengths, Moquett said allowance company likely would be the next step.

 

“We’ll point to an allowance race with Tale of Honor, maybe at Keeneland or we might wait until the November meet here at Churchill,” Moquett said. “We always liked this horse quite a bit but we had a few setbacks with him. Luckily, the owner was cool enough to let me have the time to do right by the horse, and the horse returned the favor.”

 

Source: Churchill Downs Communications