The Paul Court-trained harness racing mare Expressive Victor has been withdrawn from the New Zealand Cup next Tuesday preferring to start in the Group 3 2600m mobile Free for all on the same day.
Moonrock, a winner at Kaikoura on Monday, will now join the field and become one of the more lower assesed horses in recent years able to get a New Zealand Cup start.
At the the start of the this years New Zealand Cup campaign the Michael House trained pacer was graded as a C2 pacer and was paying more than $500 on the TAB fixed odds market for the New Zealand Cup.
Michael House knows there are people out there thinking that what he is doing is bizarre, but thinks the horse will not be out of his depth in the big race.
“It was a well thought out gamble nominating him for the Cup as I was hoping it would be a smaller field with not as much depth as usual.“ Michael has said and "he still needed a few thinks to go his way to be certain of a start."
The withdrawal of Expressive Victor was the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place for Moonrock and give the horse and connections their chance in the great race.
Moonrock will be driven by Tony Herlihy as regular driver dexter Dunn has elected to stick with Christen Me in the cup.
The Mark Purdon/Natalie Rasmussen trained Lazarus is the TAB favorite in the New Zealand Cup paying 1.80 to win on the fixed odds market.
Harnesslink Media