Lunar Flare has continued her rise up in the staying ranks in Victoria with a narrow victory in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup.
A daughter of 2013 Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente, Lunar Flare added Saturday’s Group 2 race over 2500m at The Valley to her first stakes race win in the Listed Ansett Classic (2400m) at Mornington on September 26.
Unfortunately for connections, Lunar Flare does not remain in the entry for the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on November 2.
But trainer Grahame Begg is happy to walk away with the $600,000 first prize cheque from the Moonee Valley Gold Cup having been denied a Caulfield Cup win last week when Nonconformist finished second to dominant 2021 Melbourne Cup favourite Incentivise.
Ridden by Michael Dee, Lunar Flare ($12) held-out Floating Artist ($3.80) to score by a half-head with Sound ($26) a further three-quarters-of-a-length away third.
Now a six-year-old and after starting her career with Lindsay Park, for whom she won a maiden at The Valley, Lunar Flare has now won seven of her 26 starts and just shy of $1 million in prize money.
“It’s absolutely outstanding,” Begg said.
“She’s been a model of consistency right through, right from the time I got her. She took a bit to work out but just keeps stepping up to the line.
“We had a few doubts with the track deteriorating a little bit but she’s hard fit, came off a good mile-and-a-half run a few weeks ago and has done a great job.
“We’re so pleased for the connections. It’s a great race to win, a fair dinkum, million-dollar race.”
Begg decided against paying up for Lunar Flare in the Melbourne after she was beaten at Flemington last month, thinking the Melbourne Cup would be too taxing.
“But she’s done her job up to now so we’ll have to consider what we’ll do,” Begg said.
“(Maybe) a Queen Elizabeth Stakes or something like that at Flemington.”