To The Moon And Back wins Gold Chip

To The Moon And Back (One Over Da Moon) looks to be a horse with a stack of potential and judging by the way he won the $15,000 Gold Chip Final at Ascot Park this afternoon he might be a stakes horse later in the season.

Prior to today’s trotting feature the three year old had run two very good seconds and had been disqualified in his only other start.

Driver Kerryn Tomlinson got To The Moon And Back away safely from the unruly and with 1700 metres to run he moved him around the field to take up the pacemaker’s role.

From there he looked a shoe in and went down to the line to win by three and three quarter lengths from Spiritinthesky.

TO THE MOON AND BACK REPLAY

“The driver told me he was gawking around and looking at things. He’s very green still and only had a few runs but he does appear to have plenty of ability, so it’s pleasing. It was a great result and a good stake today too,” trainer Brad Williamson said.

In his first start he lost considerable ground early, before storming home for second.

“To be honest I didn’t expect him to make mistakes, because at home his manners are very good and he’s sensible. But race days are a different thing. He made a wee few errors in his first two starts but his runs afterwards have been quite impressive.”

To The Moon And Back will have a short break and then Williamson plans to map out some better races late in the season.

“If he keeps on improving and gets a few more race day starts under his belt he’ll hopefully developed into a pretty nice horse.”

At this point in our interview Brad’s father Phil wandered by and said “Derby.” A positive vibe from an experienced horseman.

To The Moon And Back is very well bred and is out of Muscle Hill mare Muscle Girl, who’s a half-sister to The Fiery Ginga and The Fiery Filly. The Fiery Filly is the dam of Smokin Bandar and Fiery Bandito.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink