Three-year-old Encosta Belief is shaping as Peter Moody's best chance to win a race in New Zealand after scoring an easy win at Sandown.The gelding assured himself of a trip across the Tasman when he beat Imperial Command by a length in Wednesday's Kenvain Handicap (1400m).He will be Moody's third New Zealand runner after Niagara Falls finished 13th in the Group Two Auckland Breeders Stakes in 2004 and Upstaged dead-heated for second in the 2006 Avondale Cup.A $150,000 yearling, Encosta Belief's
Three-year-old Encosta Belief is shaping as Peter Moody's best chance to win a race in New Zealand after scoring an easy win at Sandown.
The gelding assured himself of a trip across the Tasman when he beat Imperial Command by a length in Wednesday's Kenvain Handicap (1400m).
He will be Moody's third New Zealand runner after Niagara Falls finished 13th in the Group Two Auckland Breeders Stakes in 2004 and Upstaged dead-heated for second in the 2006 Avondale Cup.
A $150,000 yearling, Encosta Belief's target is the $200,000 Karaka 3Y0 Mile at Ellerslie on January 31 which is open to graduates of New Zealand's 2008 Karaka Sale.
Moody's racing manager Jeff O'Connor said Encosta Belief was an improving galloper and may have another run in Melbourne before his New Zealand trip.
"We will see how he does in the next week," O'Connor said.
"If he needs another run the option is there to run at Flemington on the 16th or Moonee Valley on the 22nd and still get him to New Zealand for the race at the end of the month."
Racing in blinkers for the first time on Wednesday, Encosta Belief controlled the race on the speed and, ridden by Luke Nolen, was unextended to the line.
He has now won two of his nine starts, including a Wodonga maiden, but he has run four seconds to some handy horses including Group One winner Denman at Kilmore last June.
"He is so workmanlike and professional," O'Connor said. "You can do anything with him."
Meanwhile, trainer Greg Eurell is hopeful that seven-year-old Hezabruiser is now over the ailments that have limited the gelding to just 14 starts.
He posted his fifth win in the Betfair Handicap (1200m) at Sandown but badly cracked heels have been a major problem for him.
"He has just been one of those horses that always has a problem," Eurell said.
He said an infected foreleg from a splinter was a big setback but his heels were the constant worry.
"We would get a run or two out of him then the cracks appear and travel all the way up through the coronet band and start bleeding," Eurell said.
"When that happens we have to wait for the hoof to completely regrow which has been very frustrating.
"If he didn't have the ability we wouldn't persist with him."
Ridden by Chris Symons he charged home to win by 1-1/4 lengths from Not A Copy with Bohika three-quarters of a length away third.
The win gave Symons a race-to-race double after he scored on Royal Commands in the Perfect Bliss Handicap (1200m).