Morton's stays distance in Christmas Cup

At six-years-old and with 40 starts under his belt, Morton's Fork might have finally discovered his niche.

The former Godolphin gelding, now with Warwick Farm trainer Richard Litt, stepped up to 2400 metres for the first time in Saturday's Listed Christmas Cup at Randwick and came away a winner.

"He's been threatening to win for about five years," Litt said

"It's about time. We're delighted with him."

The victory was Morton's Fork's first since Litt took over his training at the start of his current campaign.

He has been racing consistently over middle-distances without winning and Litt has been waiting for the right time to get him up over a staying trip.

"We have and those races just hadn't come up," Litt said.

"He has never run over 2400 and he relished it.

"Today, he was just on. I think the four weeks between runs going into 2000 the other day, he was a bit lazy, he got halfway up the straight and said 'nah, we'll worry about it next time'."

Backed from $9.50 to start $6.50, Morton's Fork settled midfield for Glen Boss, ranging up to the leaders in the straight and spearing clear to score.

High Bridge ($4.40) gave chase but was no match for the winner, finishing 1-3/4 lengths away in second with another half-length to $3.80 favourite Miss Moana.

Morton's Fork cost $100,000 plus GST as a tried horse and is one of many older geldings in Litt's stable.

While they don't have the star power of his three-year-old Castelvecchio, who won a Group One in the autumn and finished runner-up in the Cox Plate, they are treasured members of the team.

"We're like a rest home our stable, we get all the old ones," Litt said.

"But look, we know they've got ability when we buy them and it's just a matter of doing something different with them and he's thriving.

"He has never really put in a bad run."

"I'm very proud of him. He is a stable favourite and even this morning my kids were feeding him a bag of carrots."