Winning Horse: Emissary (Gb)
Winning Trainer: Mike Moroney
On the win: “It was a really good win. We were disappointed with his last run but we put that down to the ground mainly. We were starting to wonder if he really stayed, but today he showed he certainly does.
“He’s a lovely horse and from last spring on we’ve found ourselves a really good stayer and hopefully he gets to the ultimate.”
Fork in the road: “We wanted him on dry ground today, out to the mile-and-a-half and we wondered whether that would do.
“We’ll head on to the Melbourne Cup now all going well.”
Done enough to earn a penalty: “He’s come from second-last in a really good field. It’s probably one of the better Geelong Cup fields we’ve seen for a long, long time and I think for that reason the handicapper will recognise that and that’s what they normally go on.
“The way he did it. He came from second-last. He took all the bad luck out of the equation.”
Know what to win a Melbourne Cup: “He does remind me a bit of Brew, but that’s 22 years ago now. Time flies when you’re having fun.
“It would certainly be great to win a race like that again. It’s one of our great races, so it would be nice to win it again.”
On Blake Shinn: “He’s very much in form. He’s a natural jockey. I’ve known Blake a long, long time. I was here when he was an apprentice. He’s well travelled and a world class rider.”
Winning Jockey: Blake Shinn
“Really, really special. The Geelong Cup is a time honoured race and to come here and win my first is fantastic.
“It was a big win. He showed glimpsed of promise and it’s nice to get him to produce a PB today.
“He settled really nicely and that was the main objective to get him to run the 2400 metres. As we’ve seen in his first-up run he had a great turn-of-foot over 1700.
“If we could reproduce that same turn-of-foot over this distance we were in business. The race panned out lovely and we got a nice drag into the race from Damien Oliver’s horses (Rodrigo Diaz) and he chimed in at the 300.
“He hadn’t been in the race (until then). Really good.”
Had confidence in the horse the whole way: “The way the race was run, they went fast early and it allowed him to get into a nice breathing pattern and spend no gas. That gave him the opportunity to run the distance out strongly and show his true form.
“Different dynamics of the way the races can be run but the way this was run was perfect and hs showed his true class.”
Could the horse be competitive in the Melbourne Cup down in the weights: “You’ve got to bear in mind that the distance may be a question mark but I’ve got no doubt he can be competitive. It’s just whether he can run the distance.
“But if he can produce that same turn-of-foot over 3200, he’s got to be a force.”
