Before he’d even seen the final field for Saturday’s opener at Moonee Valley, Travis Doudle felt things must have lined up well for former New Zealand-trained gelding Not Usual Glorious (Fiorente).
“The phone is starting to tingle so I think there’s a few people starting to get excited about it,” the trainer said.
Not Usual Glorious, or NUG, as he’s affectionately known, has barely put a hoof wrong since returning from a freshen in late April.
A winner of three races in New Zealand out of the stable of Shane Crawford, he has now won a further six since arriving in Australia and heads to Moonee Valley on Saturday in strong form.
“After he won his first one this prep, I thought if we get another one we can chase Country Cups because his rating will be getting a bit high but races like this are definitely worth having a crack at,” Doudle said.
‘NUG’ failed in his only previous Moonee Valley run, finishing last of 12 on a track his trainer believes didn’t have as much give as the Soft 6 rating suggested.
It’s been market as a ‘forget’ run and, therefore, there’s no damaged confidence heading in to Saturday.
“You’d think the track would actually suit him and as long as there is a little bit of juice in the ground, he’ll be fine.”
Among the owners of NUG are current Port Adelaide players Ollie Wines, Tom Clurey and Darcy Byrne-Jones, who won’t be at Moonee Valley but will be mere kilometres away at the MCG ahead of the team’s clash with Collingwood an hour after the scheduled race start.
