The timing of Moonee Valley’s temporary closure couldn’t be worse for a semi-retired trainer hoping for one last hurrah with the descendants of a horse he didn’t want to buy.
Brendon Hearps, a racing industry “lifer” as a barrier attendant, farrier and trainer, admits he will be a conflicted onlooker when the Moir Stakes signals the start of a countdown he wishes could be delayed.
In less than two months, the peculiarly shaped racetrack with a knack for generating racing theatre as the home of the Cox Plate will be torn up, levelled and then reconfigured.
When it is reopened, it won’t be the same Moonee Valley that has provided Hearps with more city success than any other metropolitan racecourse.
The Bendigo-based Hearps has never trained one good enough to run in the Cox Plate - billed as a race where legends are made.
But has still managed to create his own memories of the racetrack, thanks to a reluctant purchase more than two decades ago that established a small dynasty for the blue-collar stable run by the knockabout trainer.
It’s a connection to three generations built on unadulterated speed and an affinity for racing at Moonee Valley that guarantees Hearps will have more than a passing interest in the result of the Moir.
The only horse Hearps trains is a three-year-old filly called Hegely, a half-sister to Moir runner Midwest whom he bred and sold to Rosemont Stud as a yearling for $200,000.
Hegely will most likely be the last racehorse Hearps puts a saddle on, saying “once she has finished racing that will be it for me”.
Hearps trained Midwest’s granddam Edgeton and her daughter Umgeton while sharing ownership with a group of friends.
They gave the country trainer a pathway to city success and it was Moonee Valley where both mares came into their own.
“Moonee Valley has been good to me over the years and I was hoping to train another winner from the family there,” Hearps told The Straight.
“But the worst part now is the track’s going to be closed before this filly (Hegely) is going to be ready to get down there.
“She’s only had the one run … but it’s going to be too late to do that before it shuts.
“Umgeton died last year while foaling. We lost the foal as well, so I won’t get another chance.”
Edgeton won four races at Australia’s most off-centre metropolitan racecourse, including the McEwen Trophy when it was decided at Listed level in 2004.
A daughter of Racer’s Edge, Edgeton also claimed a Valley victory over Dandy Kid, the winner of a record 15 races at the circuit, to become a storied horse in the racetrack’s narrative.
“I paid $5000 for this bloody chestnut weanling in the paddock … I had to take her (Edgeton) as part of a package deal,” Hearps said.
“My wife said to me after five months ‘are you going to pick that thing up? I said, I don't really want to’.
“Anyway, I got it home and broke it in, and all it wanted to do was run. Fair dinkum.
“She was the fastest bloody thing you'd ever get. She ended up winning a McEwen. She was a bloody good mare.”
Umgeton, the dam of Midwest, was also fast but not quite as good, although she was runner-up in a Carlyon Stakes.
Nevertheless, she followed in Edgeton’s hoofsteps for two Valley short-course wins, beating her rivals with the type of speed that has been passed on to Midwest.
Midwest hasn’t missed a place at the track in five starts, which includes three victories and a last-start second to Baraqiel in the Carlyon over the Moir course, but he is one of the outsiders in the $750,000 race.
“He’s like the mother and the grandmother, that's all anything in the family has done … just jump, lead and run,’ Hearps said.
“Midwest is exactly the same. He’ll lead in the Moir and it will be a matter if he can hang on.”
