The Valley blasts into spring G1 action with the running of the $750,000 AJ Moir Stakes WFA at 1000m, and it's always an exciting spectacle when a full field of flyers are going full bore on the turning track!
We've got that big field in 2025, which makes for a brilliant contest and a most intriguing betting race.
Named in honour of former Chairman of the MVRC, Alan John Moir, the race has been run at G1 level since 2013.
The Moir was inaugurated in 1976 and won by Bob Hoysted's grand sprinter Scamanda. The baldy faced chestnut was a race-aholic who refused to be retired, and Hoysted had to keep him in light work for many years.
Scamanda was exactly the sort of horse required to win this high pressure contest, and just a few years later Hoysted was saddling up the ultimate equine heavyweight in Manikato!
On the honour roll of iconic races there are certain names we just expect to be there and the Moir doesn't disappoint - Manikato in ‘82, Placid Ark in ‘87, the Freedie's flying grey Schillaci in ‘92.
Apache Cat, Nature Strip, Sequalo, Falvelon, Bomber Bill and California Dane all scorched the turf on their way to victory. The only dual winners of the Moir Stakes are With Me and the legend, Black Caviar.
But the undisputed king of the 1000m Valley epic is the mighty Queenslander Buffering. Buff won three Moir Stakes in 2012 /14 /15 and was runner up to Samaready in 2013. The extraordinarily tough son of Mossman started 54 times for trainer Rob Heathcote and collected six G1s - it would have been more but for Black Caviar and Hay List!
Another Heathcote warhorse Rothfire (Rothesay) carries the number one saddlecloth this year in his third attempt at the race. He's no Buff, but can Rothfire finally get another well deserved major here?
The Queenslanders are here in force with Chris Munce bringing Payline (Shooting To Win) - third in the Doomben 10,000, his career best run - and Golden Boom (Spirit Of Boom) for the Gollan camp who is in form and loves the Valley!
South Aussies Sir Sway (Sir Prancealot) the Goodwood runner up, and Oakleigh Plate hero Queman (Mint Lane) have drawn poorly and are up against it as is the Hayes galloper Oak Hill (Per Incanto) from gate 13, a course specialist.
In-form talent Baraqiel (Snitzel) - has a win over the Stradbroke champ War Machine to his credit, is undefeated here and looms as a big threat. Midwest (Zoustar) knows no other way but flat out and forward, but he'll be under blowtorch pressure this time!
That leaves the girls, and the Moir has always been a happy hunting ground for the fairer sex.
Apart from Black Caviar and Samaready, it has been won by brilliant females Spinning Hill, Special, Our Egyptian Raine, Miss Andretti, Virage De Fortune, She Will Reign, Viddora, Pippie, Imperatriz and Coolangatta.
Looking to add to this great record we've got some beauties going around in 2025!
G1 Lightning Stakes heroine Skybird (Exosphere) is back from injury sustained in that race where she unleashed an electrifying burst of speed.
A couple of top flight Kiwis are launching ambitious Australian campaigns. Alabama Lass (Alabama Express) bids to start favourite here but is not yet a G1 winner and La Dorada (Super Seth)is a G1 winning filly in her homeland!
High class mare Arabian Summer (Too Darn Hot) is first up from a spell for Tony McEvoy, has drawn the rail and is a pure speed machine, while Niance (Swiss Ace) also resumes for Grahame Begg. The lightly raced six year old needs to pull out a career best and then some, but she's a formidable sprinter on her day.
Lastly there is Esha (Extreme Choice) challenging for favoritism here at just her third race start and jumping to WFA G1 after two facile 1000m wins against her own age. It's a huge ask! - but she's bred to be anything - by a freakish stallion who won this race, out of a G1 winning I Am Invincible Mare who also loved The Valley track!
The Valley is rated Soft 5 at time of writing with some reasonable drying conditions in store, it should be a near perfect surface for most of our runners.
What will unfold in 2025?
Top Tip: SKYBIRD
Five year old Skybird produced a jaw dropping burst of power to win the G1 Lightning Stakes in February, and - as the good ones can do - she tried so hard she did a bit of damage to herself in the process. But she's all good to go now for Mitch Freedman's stable and though a G2 winner at a mile, Skybird does seem suited on breeding to the role of a pure short course specialist.
Her sire, Lonhro's G1 Golden Rose winner Exosphere, was an enormous animal and bore strong resemblance to his Golden Slipper winning broodmare sire Danzero.
His immediate family had a lot of success in Western Australia, producing a steady flow of stakes winners, usually with a pronounced speed bias. The imposing Skybird is very much her father's daughter in looks - she remains the only G1 winner by the sadly short lived sire, who proved himself a reliable source of exceedingly fast horses. His fillies in particular are quality, and Skybird was his seventh stakes winner.
She's the fifth stakeswinner as broodmare sire for Fastnet Rock's G1 Newmarket winning son Wanted, who is also the broodmare sire of Exosphere's Aquanita Stakes winner Upper Limits!
A case of two well bred but unfashionable stallions joining forces, and clearly there was a genetic affinity between them.
There's nothing unfashionable about Skybird's damline though, it's one we recognize as being of the first rank.
It's the immediate family of champion and breed shaping stallion Snitzel and his fine half-brother Hinchinbrook, Snitzel’s full sister Viennese (and her Champion Two Year Old Filly Arcaded), Epsom winner Redeiner, and the incredible Private Eye.
It's a family that just keeps producing good horses, with no regard for the ins and outs of fashion and hype.
Skybird is bred
Danehill 4m x 4m
Northern Dancer x 5m,5m
Exosphere's damline goes back to the mare Faramoude and her daughter Flora Dora, a full sister to the dam of Roan Rocket - he is best known to us as the broodmare sire of perennial speed source Rory's Jester.
Danzero is a member of a wider family I talk more about below - that of O'Reilly and Ocean Park. Exosphere carries three male lines to the Epsom Derby winner Blue Peter, two coming through Danzero.
Skybird's damsire Fastnet Rock descends from a Blue Peter daughter and has a line to him as a damsire through Princely Gift, and one to his sire Fairway as well.
Snippets and Skybird's third damsire Storm Bird bring further sons of Fairway to the mix, along with duplications of Precipitation - his great sons Summertime and Supreme Court sired Lonhro's ancestress Sweet Time and Octagonal's fourth dam Courtessa respectively.
Skybird's pedigree also features linebreeding to American sires To Market, Bimelech, Menow and his son Tom Fool, to Star Kingdom and his sire Stardust, and to the Blue Hens Loved One, Grey Flight, Sunshot and La Troienne.
Barrier 5 is ideal on paper but Skybird won't be leading, hopefully Johnny Allen gives her a perfect passage behind the speed.
She's got G1 WFA form on the board, she's got the X - Factor and I think she can unleash that scary good turn of foot at the right time.
Next Best: ROTHFIRE
A Queensland speedster in the very best tradition, Rothy is taking on the Moir challenge for the third time, but this is his first try at the 1000m pressure cooker when first up and I reckon that's in his favour. He ran well at both previous attempts.
His sire Rothesay was a beautifully bred son of Fastnet Rock from the Canny Lass family.
Rothfire is out of the unraced Hussonet mare Huss On Fire, her final foal and the standout of her three winners.
Rothfire is bred
Mr Prospector 4m x 3m
Biscay 5m x 5m
Sir Tristram 6m x 4m
He descends from a daughter of My Babu and is strongly linebred to that sire, an enduring source of class and speed.
Rothfire has drawn well in 7 so Luke Nolen has options. The old boy was back in great form in Brisbane and he's got the runs on the board at this level. He always gives 1000%!
Roughie: ARABIAN SUMMER
Tony McEvoy's lightly raced four year old is bred on a similar Too Darn Hot / Street Cry / Zabeel cross as champion Broadsiding (4x G1 wins, third Cox Plate), but this is a pure speed mare!
Her dam Maraam was a tough and moderately talented daughter of Street Cry who visited Too Darn Hot in his first Australian season. Her previous two foals had raced unsuccessfully.
Maraam is a blueblood though and was purchased as an Inglis Easter yearling for $1,050,000 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum. A half-sister to G2 winning colt Derryn (Hinchinbook), she comes from the illustrious Easy Date family that has produced numerous G1 winners and champion sire not a Single Doubt.
Arabian Summer is bred
Mr Prospector 5m x 4m,6m,7m
Halo 5f x 5f
While Arabian Summer's damsire Street Cry has proved to be a dynamic nick with Too Darn Hot, duplications of Mr Prospector are also working well with him and he gets all that in this pedigree!
Arabian Summer is linebred to Blue Hen Almahmoud and to her daughters Natalma and Cosmah.
The four year old has the coveted rails draw and Harry Coffey on board.
Blowout: LA DORADA
If ever a horse was bred to take an instant liking to the Valley circuit, it's this exciting filly! She's aimed at longer targets, but has shown she can rip off a brilliant and breathtaking finish - just like her sire Super Seth.
The Walker/Bergerson trained La Dorada is a blueblood and was a savvy NZB Karaka Book 1 buy for $190,000 from the Waikato Stud draft in 2024, by David Ellis of Te Akau Racing fame.
Raced by the Te Akau Solid Gold Racing Partnership, she's about to line up for start number six and has already earned over $1 million.
Te Akau have expanded their operation into Australia this spring and La Dorada is a key Spring contender.
She's not big, but has shown the never say die attitude of an absolute winner from day one. Her 1400m G1 Matamata Sires Produce victory was amazing, when the filly literally sprouted wings, storming away to win by three and a half lengths.
She is bred to improve markedly at three which gives me confidence she can run a mighty race.
With a hot pace on here, weight pull and a well timed ride I can see her letting loose with that turn of foot.
The barrier isn't ideal but it's not disastrous either because this girl is a professional.
La Dorada is bred
Zabeel 4f x 3m sex balanced
Nureyev 6f x5f,5m sex balanced
Success Express x4f,5f
It's well established now that duplication of Zabeel can and often does become a source of top class speed. Just one example of this is Yulong's G1 All Aged winner Pierata.
