The Good Fight Relishes Flemington Conditions

Michael Moroney's New Zealand stayer The Good Fight (High Chaparral-Pravda, by Zabeel) triumphed over his rivals in the $150,000 Flemington Cup 1849 (2800 m) on a gloomy Saturday afternoon in Melbourne. After winning his first Group race three starts ago in May's Gr3 Rotorua Cup (2200 m) on heavy ground, The Good Fight made his Australian debut in the Listed Winter Cup (2400m) at Rosehill in Sydney in early June but showed little before showed improvement three weeks later when sent to Caulfield in late June. After improving again to land the major prize on Saturday in a race where imported $2.15 favourite South Pacific (Galileo) was disappointing in seventh position, racing.com reports that The Good Fight's jockey Ben Melham was pleased by the effort. "He's quite casual, he doesn't have a lot of speed early and you can't mess around with his racing pattern too much. I let him be happy for the first half and when the rain came it really suited him." The stable will continue to seek out similar wet tracks through the remainder of the winter for the well-bred son of former Gr1 New Zealand Oaks runner-up Pravda.