EROICO & MONEY BOY

17th Dec 2016

Barely a meeting has gone by lately without a Price Bloodstock winner and it was champion trainer John Size who provided a double on Saturday at Sha Tin with Eroico and Money Boy.

Stable stalwart Eroico has been a solid success with 5 wins and over $7 million in stakes but he hadn’t won a race for more than 18 months with his rating hovering throughout that time between 86 and 94 so Size was relieved to see him salute again under a clever ride from Craig Williams.

It was his first win over 1,650m or on the dirt, but Eroico had always shown an ability at both and for Size it was about the gelding breaking through again.

“It was good to get one with Eroico, had been a while and he’s very honest so you can see his rating hovers around the same area and he never gets any relief in the handicap,” Size said. “Today he got a slow pace and he was the best sprinter in the race so he got all the advantages but it’s one thing to get them and another to take advantage of that and go and win the race and he showed that he still has the desire. I was never worried about the 1,650m – he ran well at it before, it was Gun Pit who beat him that night, so that wasn’t a concern.”

At the other end of his career is Money Boy, a Hinchinbrook three-year-old having just his third race start, who took his maiden win well enough after a copybook ride by Joao Moreira.

“I’m happy with him. He’s just a baby and probably isn’t strong enough yet to really put a race away but he still got the win,” Size said. “Probably we’ll have to wait until he’s four before he can really put them away. We know there’s still some improvement in him just with that strengthening up that he should do as he matures so it’s a good sign that he’s winning races already.”