Pivotal Moment Ready For Creswick Stakes

Wednesday, 09 June 2010 07:45

Promising three-year-old Pivotal Moment, who is closely related to a Dubai World Cup winner and a Melbourne Cup placegetter, will have plenty to live up to when he tackles the Listed Creswick Stakes at Flemington.

After scoring an easy debut win on his home track at Yarra Valley a month ago, the Shane Nichols-trained colt faces a leap in grade on Saturday but has the pedigree to get the job done.

He is one of the few horses racing in Australia by world-class sire Pivotal who won four of his six starts including the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot and now stands at stud in England where he has produced more than 80 stakeswinners and has progeny earnings of more than STG22 million ($A39.31 million).

Pivotal Moment's Entrepreneur dam, Speciality, only raced once but is a half-sister to Central Park, who was second to Rogan Josh in the 1999 Melbourne Cup, and Velvet Moon who is the Group Two-winning dam of 2003 World Cup winner Moon Ballad.

"He's got a cracking pedigree," Nichols said.

He said Pivotal Moment was originally with David Hayes but the colt's owners sold him for financial reasons and he was bought by Nichols' stable client Phillip Anderson Bloodstock for $22,000 at a mixed sale in Melbourne last August.

Last year Pivotal's yearlings sold for up to STG650,000 guineas ($A1.22 million).

Nichols said Pivotal Moment was no more than 15 hands but had a strong body and impressed with the way he carried 58kg to an unextended 2-3/4-length win over 1212 metres on a heavy track at Yarra Valley on May 11.

"He is not a big horse but he's compact," Nichols said.

"He didn't beat much at his first start but he did brain them."

Nichols said Pivotal Moment had always shown ability and had won several jumpouts by "many lengths" before his debut.

He said the Creswick was a big test for the colt and expects him to run well without necessarily winning.

"He has improved since his debut and drops down to 53kg on Saturday so I imagine he will probably run a ball-tearing race and not get beaten very far," Nichols said.

"His work has been excellent but whether he is up to these at this stage I'm not sure.

"It is his last chance for black type as a three-year-old so you have got to have a go.

"It just gets harder in those races as they get older."

Dale Smith, who won on Pivotal Moment at Yarra Valley, has retained the ride on Saturday.