Pierro Makes His Mark at Caulfield

Pierro started the big meeting at Caulfield on Saturday with a progressive winner in Saltpeter (4g Pierro x Flokkati, by Fastnet Rock) and finished the day with a great effort from his quality stayer Persan (5g Pierro x Ofcourseican, by Mossman), who ran a terrific third in the $5million Group I MRC Caulfield Cup.

Trained by John Moloney, Saltpeter was fourth in the Listed MRC Gothic Stakes at this meeting last year, but failed to find his best form last autumn.

A good last start win at Sale indicated he was on the way back and he lived up to that effort when scoring a three-quarter length win in the Benchmark 80 event over 1700m.

A $200,000 Magic Millions purchase for his trainer from the Segenhoe Stud draft, Saltpeter runs for a syndicate that includes his breeder Robert Crabtree of Dorrington Farm and has won four of 17 starts earning nearly $250,000 in prizemoney.

Saltpeter is the fifth winner from five to race from stakes-placed Fastnet Rock mare Flokkati, who comes from the family of Group II winner The Heavyweight.

The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace trained Persan finished fifth in the Melbourne Cup last year and showed he will be a force again this year when sticking to his guns after racing on the pace all the way for Linda Meech in the Caulfield Cup.

He finished third behind Incentivise and Nonconformist with his overall record now seven wins and eight placings from 27 starts with prizemoney of $1.5million.

“It was a super run and he’ll improve with that,” said Linda Meech.