Five horses owned by Lloyd Williams, including last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon, were put through their paces in two exhibition gallops at Flemington on Saturday.
Sea Moon (Brett Prebble), Seville (Eddie Cassar) and Masked Marvel (Steven Arnold) appeared in the first exhibition gallop while Green Moon (Brett Prebble) and Thought Worthy (Eddie Cassar) worked together.
Nick Williams was trackside to view the gallops and he was pleased with what he saw.
Green Moon and Epsom Derby fourth placegetter Thought Worthy went home slightly quicker then the trio which featured Sea Moon.
Green Moon completed his final 800 metres in 48.14 with his 200-metre splits clocked as 12.69, 12.27, 11.33 and 11.85.
“He has come to hand very quickly and his last furlong today was very impressive I thought,” Prebble said of Green Moon.
Sea Moon, who finished second in last year’s Group 1 Breeders Cup Turf (2000m) behind St Nicholas Abbey, worked home in similar time with his final 600 metres clocked in 35.5 seconds. He worked at the rear of his three-horse group before finishing over the top.
“He is a very nice horse,” Nick Williams said.
“At this point we are very happy with how he has acclimatised.
“The one thing with these imported horses is that you don’t really know how they are going until you put them under serious race pressure.
“Given his profile in the Northern Hemisphere you’d love to aim him at the Cox Plate but we’ve really got to let him tell us if it’s the Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup or Melbourne Cup and he’ll tell us by the end of September.”
The Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 31 and Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) on September 6 – both at Group 1 level – looms as the starting point for the Williams’-owned quintet.
– TVN
