Recording a two length debut victory at Morphettville in early December, Tony and Calvin McEvoy’s 2yo Tagaloa filly Moana Spirit continued on her winning ways, scoring on Saturday in the $150,000 Geelong Diamond (1000m) for Yulong, and will now be aimed towards the G1 MRC Blue Diamond Stakes.
Jumping away from barrier four as the second favourite, Moana Spirit settled with just one behind her in the run as John McArdle’s Divine Dot came across from the outside gate to take up the running.
When the home turn was reached and the Ciaron Maher-trained race favourite Ghana’s Khan came around the outside to make his run, Luke Currie aboard Moana Spirit came across the heels of those in front of him to make his run.
Chasing hard down the outside, Moana Spirit hit the lead at the 100m, opening up to pull clear by two lengths from the race favourite with Pinatubo filly Fire Sierra recording consecutive third placed efforts.
“She's a beautiful laid-back filly, and very unassuming,” said Calvin McEvoy post-race.
“She was quite raw in her work going towards Adelaide. We didn't expect a huge amount. She went over there and she won.
“Since she’s returned to Flemington, we noticed that she'd really switched on. I thought a jump out in between was fantastic.
“There was obviously some horses today with big wraps on them and we probably came in under the radar.
“Fantastic for team Yulong. You know, it's one of their home-breds. We're thrilled for the support and nice to get a win with for Tagaloa.
“We didn't really know how to play out because she can begin quite quickly out of the machines, but...
“She's also still learning, so we left it completely up to him, and he gave her a lovely ride. She was really travelling, coming into the band. The favourite looked like it had a bit of a tough run. She really had to knuckle down to get past it, and she did.
When questioned if she will be aimed towards the Blue Diamond, McEvoy felt she’d be given her chance.
“I think we will have to now, for sure. Everything about her tells us that she's going to be better at three, but she's two from two. She's won her way in today. We might keep a fresh head towards a preview maybe and then... Hopefully she's there for the Blue Diamond.”
With two wins from two starts, the Yulong bred and raced Moana Spirt took her prizemoney haul to $139,000.
The third winner from three to the races out of the winning Medaglia D'oro mare Chaminade, Moana Spirit is from the family of Champion Older Sprinter and G1 Haydock Sprint Cup winner Pipalong.
Yulong will offer the latest yearling out of Chaminade at this year’s Inglis Premier yearling sale with the Alabama Express filly selling as Lot 550.
Chaminade unfortunately missed to Diatonic (Jpn) last year, so there was no foal this season.
One of 20 individual winners for Tagaloa, headed by G2 MVRC Fillies Classic winner Salty Pearl and G3 MRC Ethereal Stakes winner Spicy Lu, Tagaloa has nine yearlings catalogued for the upcoming Magic Millions yearling sale including Lot 581, a filly out of Champion and eight-time G1 winner More Joyous (NZ).
