RV board gives Peter Moody the green light

Peter Moody’s application to return to the Australian training ranks has been approved.

Peter Moody is looking forward to the challenge of resuming his training career in what will be a low-key return.

The Racing Victoria board last week gave Moody the green light to return to training following a four-year absence.

“We’ve been putting the pieces together for a while now and that was the final hurdle,” Moody said.

“I think it was just a matter of going through the system, but it’s always nice when it comes out the other side.”

Moody stepped away from training in March 2016 after being suspended for six months after Lidari returned a high cobalt reading following his second placing in the 2014 Turnbull Stakes.

The trainer was found not guilty of the most serious charge of administering cobalt to Lidari but was found guilty of a lesser administration charge as well as presenting a horse on race day with a prohibited substance in its system.

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Moody has on-course stabling for 40 horses at Pakenham and is expected to have 12 to 15 horses in work when he opens for business in May.

But that number could change depending on how hard the COVID-19 pandemic hits the racing industry.

“It will be a slow process because to have 40 in work you need a hundred on the books and I haven’t got that,” Moody said.

“We’ve probably got 25 or 30 on the books and we’ll start off with a dozen or 15 and slowly build from there.”

Moody said he would take over the training of a number of horses he owns while also getting younger bloodstock through the system.

One horse Moody is set to take over is the lightly raced promising stayer Shepard, a three-time winner from five starts for David Brideoake.

“He’s a nice staying horse with a fair bit of progression ahead of him hopefully,” Moody said.