Morton’s Stays Distance In Christmas Cup

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Morton's Fork

At six-years-old and with 40 starts under his belt, Morton's Fork might have finally discovered his niche.

The former Godolphin gelding, now with Farm trainer , stepped up to 2400 metres for the first time in Saturday's Listed at and came away a winner.

“He's been threatening to win for about five years,” Litt said

“It's . We're delighted with him.”

The victory was Morton's Fork's first since Litt took over his training at the start of his current campaign.

He has been racing consistently over middle-distances without winning and Litt has been waiting for the right time to get him up over a staying trip.

“We have been looking and those races just hadn't come up,” Litt said.

“He has never run over 2400 and he relished it.

“Today, he was just on. I think the four weeks between runs going into 2000 the other day, he was a bit lazy, he got halfway up the straight and said ‘nah, we'll worry about it next time'.”

Backed from $9.50 to start $6.50, Morton's Fork settled midfield for , ranging up to the leaders in the straight and spearing clear to .

($4.40) gave but was no match for the winner, finishing 1-3/4 lengths away in second with another half-length to $3.80 favourite Miss .

Morton's Fork cost $100,000 plus GST as a tried horse and is one of many older geldings in Litt's stable.

While they don't have the star power of his three-year-old Castelvecchio, who won a Group One in the autumn and finished runner-up in the Cox Plate, they are treasured members of the team.

“We're like a rest home our stable, we get all the old ones,” Litt said.

“But look, we know they've got ability when we buy them and it's just a matter of doing something different with them and he's thriving.

“He has never really put in a bad run.”

“I'm very proud of him. He is a stable favourite and even this morning my kids were feeding him a bag of carrots.”

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