Top Of The Range (NZ) Captures Bendigo Cup

With a stirring victory in Wednesday’s A$400,000 Group 3 Jayco Bendigo Cup (2400m), Top Of The Range (NZ) (Savabeel) took his career earnings to A$546,350 – more than double his purchase price at Karaka.

Representing the trans-Tasman stable of Mike Moroney, the $250,000 Premier Sale graduate recorded the fifth and most significant victory of his 27-start career.

With champion Western Australian jockey William Pike in the saddle, Top Of The Range emerged from the pack and flashed through the inside to score by a long head.

It was a deserved big-race breakthrough for the six-year-old gelding, who had run a close second in the Group 3 Coongy Cup (2000m) in his previous start. He also finished second behind leading Melbourne Cup contender and fellow Karaka graduate Surprise Baby (NZ) (Shocking) in the Group 2 Adelaide Cup (3200m) earlier in the year.

“He’s come of age,” Moroney said. “He had a lot go wrong earlier in his career, heart fibrillation and things like that, but he’s really matured now and he’s a good horse to deal with.”

Top Of The Range was bred by Graham and Helen-Gaye Bax and sold under their Blandford Lodge banner.

A full-sister to Top Of The Range was bought by Moody Racing for $240,000 in Book 1 of Karaka 2019.