“Lady” gets Moons off the mark

Astute horseman Graham Moon has posted the first win in the latest chapter of his colorful harness racing journey in a new State.

Moon and his wife Jenny have relocated to Victoria and got a victory on the board at Bendigo with Flame Lady (Raging Bull – Bloss’s Flame (Live Or Die), a granddaughter of the 1990s star, Blossom Lady (43 wins).

The win came in only Moon’s fifth start since shifting to Victoria, during a career in which he has raced across eastern Australia and in North America.

“When I look back on what I’ve done, I realize I’ve been very lucky,” Moon said.

The Moon family was originally from Bankstown with Graham’s father as well as older brother Don being prominent in the sport.

“Dad had a few jobs including a milk run, while mum would clean out all the horse boxes and do the feeds. Our family wasn’t all that well off and mum was very firm in that all of us kids had to finish a trade before thinking about horses,” Graham said.

“So I become a plumber and Don was a butcher. Our other siblings ended up being a diesel mechanic, a farrier and a vet nurse. Dad used to break-in horses and in my younger days, I broke some yearlings in for the successful Ingham brothers.

“Nowadays I’m too old to do any breaking-in. We used to breed a bit and had six broodmares of our own. When they got too old we didn’t replace them.”

Moon said the family began buying horses out of the South Island of New Zealand and have purchased around 20 over the years. Franco Seville, Bobbie McArdle and Nicola Jaccka proved to be very good.

“Don and I used to fly over and buy them, but now my wife Jenny picks them out. She’s pretty good at it too.”

Moon said a pacer they raced in the 1970s named Gay Hondo “really got the ball rolling for us”.

“Gay Hondo won 40 races and over $100,000 in stakemoney. She was such a great trier and very honest. She was brilliant in stands and competed in two Inters and won cups at Cranbourne, Newcastle and Tamworth,” he said.

“But our best horse was probably Tiger Jason, another one that won over $100,000. He won six 2yo races, and then most of the major 3yo events. The next season he was awarded the 4yo Horse of the Year after being unbeaten.

“We had some great tussles with Gammalite, who was our nemesis. I was sure we had him tossed one night in a Geelong Cup after getting a break on him, but he got up on the line to pip us out. Gammalite was so tough.

“Both Gay Hondo and Tiger Jason were good to us. Don and I had taken up horses a bit more full-time at this stage. We weren’t relying on them completely though, we both had other business interests.”

Moon said a sponsored trip to the USA with Tiger Jason in 1982 is a fond memory, but it never crossed his mind to go back over there permanently.

“I drove around to most of the tracks and competed at Meadowlands. We met a lot of nice people and stayed at a property owned by the great Herve Filion (the late champion retired in 2012 with 15,183 winners). But there’s no place like home,” he said.

“I gave up driving a couple of years ago, probably longer. I was lucky to drive in most states and one season had 50 winners and we only had about 10 horses going. You just have to be professional these days and do it all the time. I jump on now occasionally at the trials.

“Not only did I drive in Inters, but a few Miracle Miles, Derbies and the Chariots of Fire. When I was young, dad made me use my annual holidays and get around such great drivers like Gus Weeks and Percy Hall.”

Moon is understandably proud of his family having achieved so much.

“I think another string in our bow was Jenny and I doing artificial insemination – we had a 95 percent strike rate of getting mares in foal.

“I’ve always had a strong passion for the industry and have been happy to put my hand up wherever I’ve been needed with things like administration roles or mentoring of young drivers.”

Moon said he and Jenny shared the love of horses and had always intended to continue in the sport after putting their Tamworth property on the market last year.

“It sold in a day and then we hooked up the caravan and took off,” he said.

“Two horses got sent down to Brett Bunfield at Merrigum, because it was always our intention to make the Goulburn Valley area of Victoria our home as we are friends with Doc Wilson, Peter Walsh, the Turnbulls and the Aikens.

“We got stuck for a bit in Queensland due to covid. We later travelled to the Northern Territory and South Australia because it was something we always wanted to do.”

The couple, who have had properties all their lives, are now training out of Brett and Janelle Bunfield’s establishment.

“We are thoroughly enjoying what we’re doing at the moment. We’ve got just one horse and we knew the Bunfields from when they were in Canberra. I’m helping them out with their water walker operation,” Moon said.

The Bunfields installed the walker in 2018 and it’s been in constant use ever since with a growing number of trainers sending horses there for rehabilitation work or getting them prepared for another race campaign.

“We’ll keep pottering around with a few. We’ve decided to make the Goulburn Valley region our home now and settle down here,” Moon said.

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink