by Myra Lewyn

Trainer Mike Moroney’s formerly uncelebrated handicapper Sarrera continued his remarkable ascent to prominence this season as a seven-year-old when he notched his second straight Group 1 victory in the $482,601 XXXX Gold Doomben Cup (Aus-G1) on Saturday.

Not only has the Quest for Fame (GB) gelding delighted his connections with his unexpected coming of age, he has shown amazing resilience to return from a bowed tendon as a younger horse and subsequent surgery on his small intestine to remove a malignant growth.

Fourteen days ago, Sarrera dramatically snapped a year-long drought of losses, dating to a win in a handicap at Warrnambool, with his last-to-first upset at odds of 50-to-1 in the Patinack Farm Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Aus-G1) on May 3 at Randwick.

“If somebody had told me last year this horse was going to win two Group 1 races at weight for age, I would have told them they were mad,” Moroney told the Sydney Morning Herald.

With Damien Oliver at the reins again in the Doomben Cup, Sarrera proved that victory was not fluke. He settled off the pace in sixth in the 16-horse field before uncorking a swift turn of foot in the straight and overhauling Rampant Lion for a 1 1/4-length triumph. Multiple group winner Like It Is, the early pacesetter, hung on for third, another length back.

Sarrera covered 2,000 meters (9.94 furlongs) in 2:03.38 on turf rated as firm, upstaging highly regarded stablemate Eskimo Queen, a multiple Group 1 winner who was never a factor.

Moroney is considering sending Sarrera to the Brisbane Cup (Aus-G2) at Eagle Farm on June 9.

“He might get too much weight in the Brisbane Cup now, and we might have to have a rethink,” he told the newspaper.

Winner of the 2005 Nad al Sheba Club Classic, Sarrera was bred in Australia by Werai Park Stud and is campaigned by a partnership. He is out of the Zabeel mare Zamson.

Myra Lewyn is daily news editor for Thoroughbred Times