Lloyd
and Nick Williams had a clean out of stock this week with a large number of
horses sold through the Inglis Digital Online September Sale, but The Taj Mahal
(IRE) was not among those horses and showed his worth with a thrilling win in
the Group III MVRC JRA Cup on Friday night at Moonee Valley.
The Liam Howley trained Galileo stallion took the lead and proved impossible to
run down, accelerating off the bend for Ben Melham and then defying all
challengers to win the 2040 metre contest by a head.
"He'll be even better at a mile and a half," said winning rider Ben Melham.
The Taj Mahal is entered for all the spring majors.
"He's a stallion so you have to stand over him and make him do it," said Nick
Williams.
"The mares coming back from the Stocks stakes fired him up , but he's run
really well. The Caulfield Cup is his race and this is a good stepping stone
for him."
The Taj Mahal is bred in the purple being a sibling to Group I winners
Gleneagles, Happily and Marvellous from super producer You'resothrilling, a
sister to champion racehorse and sire Giant's Causeway.