Morton's Star ‘Turn' In Warrnambool Cup Heats

MORTON overcame a cross continent trip and very limited one-turn track experience – make that no race experience at all – to steal the show in Thursday night's Group 2 Warrnambool Cup heats (450m).

The G1 winner was back in his home state seven nights after running third to fellow Victorian Hector Fawley in The Sandgroper (520m) at Cannington.

Trained by Jason Sharp at Lara, Morton hadn't set foot on Warrnambool prior to contesting the fourth of seven Cup heats.

In fact, his previous 25 career starts had all been on city 500m circuits, the majority in elite company.

The December '21 son of former WA superstar Tommy Shelby is a four-time G1 finalist, presenting the Sharp family with their first G1 victory in the Gold Bullion in Brisbane in February.

Morton started $2.20 favourite at his Warrnambool debut, a quote that looked extremely generous and even more so after he used box two to quickly find the front.

Outclassing and overpowering his rivals, Morton defeated Grand Tourer by 5.5 lengths in a Best Of Night 24.87, his 15^th win from 26 starts.

"The (G1) Harrison Dawson is coming up (heats May 9) and we would've needed to trial him anyway, so we decided to throw him in the Cup heats," Jason Sharp explained.

"He'd never been to Warrnambool before and he's only ever had two horseshoe trials. 

"He trialled over 400m and 460m at Geelong and they were both only in the last month. 

"That's all he's ever had, so I was really happy with his run and hopefully he can improve on that next week.

"I wanted to introduce him to horseshoe tracks because the two-turn racing puts a lot of pressure on his body and it will freshen up his mind too."

Morton was one of three heat winners to break 25 seconds, with Jason Thompson's duo Bernie Burrow and Flying Zulu clocking 24.98 and 24.99, respectively.

Two other Sandgroper runners won heats.

Michelle Mallia's Fernando Phil, which ran sixth in WA's richest race,  posted 25.04, and Robert Britton's Trooper Tears, which finished fifth, ran 25.32.

Morton will exit box three in next Wednesday night's (May 1) $55,000 to-the-winner final, where he's the early $3 favourite.

"The draw probably isn't ideal with Trooper Tears (box 2) on his inside," Sharp said.

"He's just got to get out, have a bit of luck and hopefully not get knocked over."

Morton was Team Sharp's second star sprinter to set a provincial venue alight this week.

Afire, winner of the Speed Star series over 515m at Sandown Park last August and a G1 Dapto Megastar finalist, made it two from two since resuming from an injury-enforced break at Shepparton on Monday night.

After running 25.00 one week earlier at his first start since October 19, the February '21 son of Bernardo clocked a near-record 24.79.

Afire will be striving to complete a hat-trick when he exits box two in race nine at The Meadows on Saturday night.

"He cracked a hock and needed a pin put in it," Sharp explained.

"We got him back in January and he was flying, but then the pin had to be taken out so we had to stop again.

"He went good at his first run back at Shepparton, so we went back and he went better.

"All going well, he'll go to the Harrison-Dawson too."