Last Saturday’s impressive Flemington win by Moss ’n’ Dale was the highlight of a successful weekend for the Moe stable of Peter and Manny Gelagotis. 
Less than 24 hours earlier, improving import Hardington had tasted success in Australia for the first time under lights at Cranbourne.
Moss ’n’ Dale won the Colin Hayes AM, OBE Hall of Fame Trophy (1400m), named in honour of one of Australian racing’s visionaries and a friend of the Gelagotis brothers’ late father, Michael.
Michael Gelagotis’s first forays into thoroughbred ownership were with castoffs from Colin Hayes’s Lindsay Park. Royal Mask, Opine Trust and Wonder Worker were early success stories, all trained at Sale by Gelagotis family friend Kevin Ruff. 
Team Gelagotis went to Flemington with confidence after Moss ’n’ Dale’s luckless return at Warrnambool in the Wangoom Handicap. 
The underrated galloper is now four from four second up and has won 11 of 24 starts overall. 
It’s easy to see why he’s Peter Gelagotis’s favourite in a barn that contains Group 1 winners Malaguerra and Levendi. 
“He’s a horse with such a great race pattern,” Peter Gelagotis said.
“He’s brilliantly out of the machines and you can sort of drop your hands on him and ask him to come back a peg or two. He relaxes beautifully and he just loves attacking the line.
“He wants to win and that’s reflected in his CV.”
Heavily supported into $3.80 equal favouritism, Moss ’n’ Dale was confidently ridden by apprentice Jack Martin, who has now won four races on the five-year-old Kiwi-bred Castledale gelding. 
“He toyed with that field and there’s obviously upside in the horse, which holds him in good stead for a top-echelon race,” Gelagotis said on Tuesday.
That “top-echelon” race is likely to be the Group 1 $1.5 million UBET Stradbroke Handicap at Doomben on Saturday June 9. 
The well travelled Moss ’n’ Dale has already won in Adelaide and Sydney. He’s been a great money spinner for connections, amassing $475,650.
“If we can get into the (Stradbroke) field, he sneaks in with 51kg. If we can get a wet track I’m very confident he’d acquit himself well,” Gelagotis said.
A Group 3 placegetter last spring, Moss ’n’ Dale scored his biggest win in Gippsland’s richest race, the listed 2017 Ladbrokes Sale Cup (1600m). 
Moss ’n’ Dale is at home on all surfaces but excels in soft and heavy conditions, adding merit to his Flemington win on a good 4.
Bluegrass Bloodstock principal Lenny Russo, a long-time Gelagotis client, bred Moss ’n’ Dale and put together the syndicate that races him. 
The previous night, Hardington relished the heavy conditions at Cranbourne, running through the line strongly under the urgings of Beau Mertens to win the O’Brien Real Estate Sky Heights Stayers Series Heat 4 (2025m). 
The five-year-old British-bred gelding looks to have acclimatised much better in his second Australian preparation. 
Hardington and Irish-bred Serenade the Stars are the first horses that Gelagotis Racing has trained for Terry Henderson’s OTI Syndications.
Serenade the Stars was a Bendigo winner on his Australian debut last November, and later won at Caulfield over 2400 metres. 
The four-year-old by boom European staying sire Sea the Stars trialled at Cranbourne on Monday.
In other news, Levendi is recovering well from recent successful surgery to remove bone chips in both his knees. 
The ATC Derby winner has started some light rehabilitation on the water-walker but is likely to miss much of the spring.
“Given the quality horse he is, we’re better off being conservative, biding our time and having him back at his top for the autumn,” explained Gelagotis.
“I’m mindful he is stallion material as he has a great CV. Ideally if we can win a Group 1 mile that would really cement his place in the stallion ranks. That’s the mindset.”