Vinery shuttler More Than Ready has a worldwide reputation for siring champion juveniles. He has been represented by Golden Slipper winners Sebring and Phelan Ready and last month sired the Breeders Cup Juvenile divisional winners Pluck and More Than Real at Churchill Downs.
At the other end of the scale, there are numerous More Than Ready veterans going as well as ever. Singapore based seven year-old Monkey Man began racing way back in December 2006 and the gelding improved his record to 8 wins in 38 starts at Kranji on Friday night.
Monkey Man (7g More Than Ready – Elle Duccio by Danehill) returned to form with a three victory in an Open Benchmark Stakes over 1200m. “He’s a bit of a funny old bloke but his work during the week was spot-on,” trainer John Meagher said. “He was back to his winning body weight and I’m a big believer in horses winning body weights.”
Monkey Man raced in Australia as Totally Prepared and won races at Ballarat, Kyneton and Seymour when trained by Mick Price. Vinery sold him to the Caulfield trainer for $150,000 at the 2005 Gold Coast Magic Millions.
He is a member of More Than Ready’s second southern crop and is the year younger brother to G1 Goodwood Hcp winner Perfectly Ready. Their dam Elle Duccio foaled another More Than Ready colt in August.
Perfectly Ready was also trained by Price and he helped More Than Ready claim the Australian first-season sires’ premiership in 2004-05.