Moruya preview: Absent trainer Joe Cleary to monitor Gerry Harvey pair on way back from Darwin

The Australian

a day ago

The dynamic duo of trainer Joe Cleary and Gerry Harvey can add to their extraordinary tally of shared winners in back-to-back races at Moruya
Joe Cleary will be somewhere in the vicinity of 33,000 feet in the air when two of his spring, in partnership with the man he affectionately knows as 'Uncle Gerry', compete at ground level at Moruya on Tuesday.
Cleary, as has often been the case, spends the first few days of each new season in the Top End where he invariably saddles up, or owns, a few in action on Darwin Cup day.
With his flight home to Queanbeyan, via Canberra, taking up most of the daylight hours on Tuesday, Cleary will be monitoring the Gerry Harvey-bred and raced duo Feedback and Vermicella from the skies.
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Blue-blooded mare Vermicella is likely to start a warm favourite in Tuesday's feature Benchmark 66 Handicap despite being rolled at $1.60 at her last start at Moruya on July 11.
That said, the Cleary/Harvey mare was a close runner-up in the Benchmark 74 and lost no love at home.
'She was good,'' Cleary said.
'It was probably half my fault. I rode her too close. I just thought Capital Heart would be out and rolling and try and pinch it but as it turned out, it just fell into Your Not The Boss' hands whereas we should have probably been back where it was and have one crack them.
'She will be ridden colder on Tuesday, getting her back into her comfort zone, and I think you'll see the real Vermicella.
'She just runs straight over the top of them.'
Cleary has been for years Harvey's go-to man to improve the respective resumes of fillies and mares before they return home to the Widden Valley to join Harvey's elite broodmare band.
There is no doubt Vermicella will have a home there given her royal family but it seems that it will be later rather than sooner in her case.
'If she comes out and wins easily on Tuesday maybe we go to a Goulburn Cup and then that's a back door into the Little Dance,'' Cleary said.
'She is only going to get better with age. I can see her being a real nice country cups horse over Christmas.' — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) July 11, 2025
Vermicella's pedigree has Harvey's fingerprints all over it.
Not only is she out of a mare by his New Zealand-based, hugely underrated stallion Swiss Ace, she is also a direct descendant of one of Harvey's most prized and successful foundation mares, St Kate.
As for Vermicella's co-traveller and stablemate Feedback, his future earnings relies solely on his racetrack performances given he is a gelding.
The son of Kermadec's first three runs were in Victoria when housed with Mitchell Freedman.
Feedback changed states and stables over the autumn, resurfacing at Gundagai on June 28 finishing third on the Heavy 9.
He followed that encouraging effort up with another third, this time over 1280m on the infamously on-pace Acton track in the nation's capital.
'The other day at Canberra, it was just a road for the leaders so in hindsight his run was a lot better than what it looked on paper,'' Cleary said.
'And he's trained on well.
'Before I came up here to Darwin, I gave him a gallop on the course proper and he worked super.'
Feedback was listed as a $12 chance to win Tuesday's Tyre Torque Maiden Plate (1435m).
'Obviously I have got a healthy respect for Matty Dale's horse (Brannum/$1.95 fav), it's probably the one to beat on paper but Feedback has been screaming for seven furlongs,'' says Cleary.
'I think the addition of blinkers on his last start has really switched him on.
'He'll be ridden forward on Tuesday, look, he's not far off breaking his maiden.'
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Bayou won't rest on Laurels
Keith Dryden will hand over one of the sport's most recognisable sets of silks to Doncaster Handicap-winning jockey James Innes Jr on Monday when the Laurel Oak mare Blue Bayou steps out at Moruya.
Canberra icon Dryden famously steered iron horse Handle The Truth to almost $2m in revenue for Laurel Oak including the 2019 Kosciuszko.
Others to promote the Laurel Oak brand in recent times were Golden Slipper winner Fireburn and her Sir Rupert Clarke and Manikato Stakes-winning father Rebel Dane, both housed at Gary Portelli's Warwick Farm digs.
Small in stature but big on heart, Rebel Dane is in fact the equine equivalent of an 'uncle' of the Moruya-bound Blue Bayou.
Tuesday will be her second consecutive visit to the venue in quick time having finished runner-up there on July 21.
'Great run first-up I thought,'' Dryden said.
'She finished off well. Probably this race might be fractionally stronger than that one but I can see Blue Bayou being pretty competitive.
'I thought each-way, she is probably my best of the day.'
Dryden, and his co-trainer Libby Snowden, saddle up an inviting $11 chance in the North Ryde RSL Maiden (1310m) in Brume De Soliel, a direct descendant of the broodmare gem Easy Date (the mother of Snippets).
The daughter of Everest winner and current Randwick 1200m track record holder Yes Yes Yes has finished seventh at her two runs this campaign, both holding more merit than it appears.
'When Jeff Penza rode her at her first race, he gave her a real good report but she pulled up young and sore and immature,'' Dryden explained.
'So we gave her a good spell and then brought her back.
'She was disappointing first-up, even though it was only a 1000m, but the second run was a lot improved and I thought she has improved again since.
'I wouldn't think she could win but I reckon she is a place chance.'
Dryden and Snowden's other likely runner on Tuesday's south-coast card is Bon River.
The daughter of Bon Hoffa was $16 on debut on the Acton track but has seemingly been unduly punished for her underwhelming performance, priced at 100/1 to win on Tuesday.
'It'll improve,'' Dryden said.
'It was a bit hard to work out the other day on the synthetic because everything that led, won.
'And it got well back but its sectionals were actually quite good.' Horse Racing
Form analyst Shayne O'Cass provides his best bets and race-by-race analysis for Moruya on Tuesday. Horse Racing
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