Giant Of A Performance

Rising Hong Kong star Smart Giant played his part yesterday in John Moore securing the trainers’ premiership on a dramatic final night of racing at Sha Tin. The WS-bred and sold son of champion stallion Pins was one of four winners he sent out to secure his first championship since 1997 with a final season’s tally of 74 and two ahead of Tony Cruz.

“It’s been an unbelievable day, one I’ll never forget,” Moore said. “I felt we had the firepower to get a few results our way today, but to come away with four and win the premiership is just amazing. I never really believed we would win it because my stable is top heavy with horses in the higher grades but we struck some good form when it mattered and it is a real thrill to have got over the line in first.”

Smart Giant has won at his last two appearances and has the impressive career statistics of three wins and three placings from his six starts. Purchased for $A160,000 out of WS’s 2009 Sydney Easter draft, he is out of the O’Reilly mare Spring and a half-brother to the triple Gr 1 winner Daffodil (AJC Oaks, NZ 1000 Guineas, Hawke’s Bay Challenge Stakes).

Pins also enjoyed a lucrative day in Australia with an inter-state double. In Melbourne, the well-related Tailorman showed he had inherited a good degree of the family ability with a debut victory over 1200 metres at yesterday’s Cranbourne meeting.

From the Slight Chance family, the three-year-old is a brother to the Listed Winter Cup winner Legsman and the Gr 2 performed Prickle. Tailorman was originally bought for $160,000 by the Hong Kong Jockey Club at Karaka in 2009.

In Sydney, the aptly-named four-year-old Idovoodoo was successful at the Grafton meeting. A $110,000 yearling buy, he is out of the O’Reilly mare Abracadabra who is a half-sister to the Gr 2 Championship Stakes winner and Gr 1 Australia Stakes and Australasian Oaks placegetter Ellakapella (Pompeii Court).