LOCAL trainer Doug Fernando will have one runner at the Moree Ag Supplies and Steel Twilight Christmas races tomorrow, with stable newcomer Your Temptation representing the town in the 1400m Brett Brazel Painting BM-50 Handicap.

Your Temptation, owned by the trainer’s father, Marty Fernando, arrived in Moree about a month ago from the Pakenham stables of Ricardo Meunier.

The gelding, now a seven-year-old, was previously trained at Muswellbrook by Joel Wilkes.

Marty Fernando said Your Temptation has settled in well since being purchased online.

“I was poking through the bloodstock auctions and spotted him,” Fernando said.

“I really liked his breeding. He’s won three races and 90-odd thousand prize money, and is a very versatile horse – he’s won 1400 metres to 2300 metres.

“We’ve had him here at Moree for about three or four weeks, and just couldn’t get him on the right leg after he raced the Melbourne way of going,” he said.

But we’ve got him going now. He’s been working alright, and we’re quite happy with the way he’s settled in.

“He’s a good, quiet horse – that’s the main thing – and an easy horse to train. You’re halfway there with a quiet horse,” Fernando said.

Moree trainer Doug Fernando (left) with dad Marty and their sole runner at Moree tomorrow, Your Temptation.

Son Doug, who has three horses in work at Moree racecourse, said he’ll get Your Temptation through tomorrow’s huge Christmas twilight meeting before deciding which way to head in the new year.

The rich Inverell Cup carnival in on the radar.

Tomorrow, Your Temptation will carry 62kg under Queensland jockey Brendon Newport and jump from gate seven.

“He’s been working well, getting to the line good and doing everything right. We got him back on the right leg to suit our way of going,” Doug Fernando said.

“He hadn’t raced for about three weeks when dad got him to Moree, so he was more or less still in full work.

“Our work rider, Amy Egan, gave him a hit-out Tuesday morning and he worked really well. Young Amy does a great job, and we really appreciate the work she does for us with the horses,” he said.

Fernando said he’ll keep his options open after Saturday.

“We’ll see how he pulls up before thinking about Inverell. We’ll go by what the horse tells us, so maybe we could head that way with him,” he said.

“If we can get his rating up a bit – he’s a 52-rater at the moment – we’ll be able to find some nice races over distances that will suit him.”