The winners keep coming for Barely A Moment. The Cornerstone Stud sire delivered a city double on Wednesday with Timely Surprise (Doomben) and Ellavamoment (Ascot).
Barely A Moment has really taken off in the last month or two and it could be the start of something special. “His winners are jumping out of the ground,” Cornerstone’s Sam Hayes said on Thursday. “Peter Moody’s colt looks a great prospect and we’re looking forward to the autumn.”
The Moody trained Moment Of Change dismissed his rivals by 10 lengths first-up at Murtoa and then doubled up by four at Sandown Hillside.
Moment In Change (3g Barely A Moment – Europium by Metal Storm) was being touted a G1 Caulfield Guineas prospect before Moody tipped him out for an autumn campaign.
Warrnambool gelding So Swift picked up the baton with a G2 victory in the Sandown Guineas (1600m) on November 12.
Barely A Moment’s count from his first two crops stands at 37 individual winners of 60 races. “It’s very encouraging but the big results came after the season started,” Hayes said. “It was probably a couple of months too late.”
Cornerstone began taking more bookings as the spring progressed and will look forward to a head start next year. Hayes is quietly confident Moment Of Change will lead a charge on several fronts during the autumn.
Barely A Moment was top-class at two winning the 2004 Victorian Sires’ Produce Stakes. That was the final year it rated Group 1 status but the winner was right at home at that level anyway.
He was runner-up in the Ascot Vale, Caulfield Guineas and Sandown Guineas at three then came back the following spring to win the Group 1 Toorak Hcp – Dubai Cup double at Caulfield.
Barely A Moment was the proverbial top colt who trained on as a three and four year-old. He raced like a Testa Rossa rewind and Hayes will have fingers-crossed his stud career goes the same way.
Testa Rossa’s stud fee has more than doubled since he moved to Vinery in the Hunter Valley.
Cornerstone stands Barely A Moment (Gilded Time) for a $6,050 (inc gst) service fee. That might look marvellous value in a year or two.