Vivenzo's long and curious journey to the CCC Final

By Jordan Gerrans

Every horse from across regional Queensland in the Country Cups Challenge and Country Stampede Finals on Saturday at Doomben has travelled a long and tough journey to be in the city for the prominent occasion.

Gallopers, jockeys and trainers have descended on Brisbane from almost every racing district in the Sunshine State.

While they have all done the hard yards to qualify through a bush heat and then travel to the city for the feature race day, a horse named Vivenzo has done it a little differently to all the other finalists.

Vivenzo is prepared by up-and-coming trainer Michael Morrison who was until recently housing his stable at the Gold Coast.

He has recently shifted his operation to Beaudesert.

During the winter and spring months of this year, Vivenzo raced through Far North Queensland out of a stable at Mareeba and won through to the CCC Final by winning an Innisfail heat.

Morrison was training him throughout his unique preparation, with local FNQ horseman Mark Atkinson looking after Vivenzo during the week with Morrison flying in for race day.

Morrison was born-and-bred in FNQ and was always keen to send a crop of horses north for their rich winter carnival since he started training his own team.

The Gold Coast, Beaudesert, Mareeba, Innisfail and then on to Doomben path is a curious one, but the emerging trainer will be smiling if it all pays off this Saturday afternoon.

“With Vivenzo, once I decided he would be part of the team going up there we lucked upon this Country Cups Challenge series,” Morrison said.

“I thought he would be a nice horse for it. I have followed the series the last couple of years and saw the types of horses that were winning it and thought he was not far off them.

“I thought he would be half a shout in the Final if he could go up there and qualify.”

The Innisfail heat that Vivenzo won in late October also doubled as the Innisfail Cup for 2023.

With Morrison’s family hailing from the region, it added extra significance.

Morrison’s mother was born-and-raised in the Cassowary Coast-based town.

“She was absolutely thrilled for us to win the Innisfail Cup to get to the Final, being her home town Cup,” he said.

Morrison’s father moved to FNQ in his university years, where he met his mother.

Morrison lived in FNQ until his late teenage years before relocating south.

He has always keep a close eye on the North Queensland carnival every year and wanted to be involved, but with being based at the Gold Coast and now Beaudesert, it can be tricky logistically.

Morrison says he will be ‘forever grateful’ for the Atkinson family for their efforts to have his gallopers fit to race during the northern carnival.

On top of Vivenzo, Dragon Spring and Olympic Class from his barn also spent time under Atkinson’s watch.

In taking a team north to race in FNQ through the carnival, Morrison says it was a big learning experience for all involved as he feared he would look silly doing so if he did not ‘get a result’.

Morrison is a graduate from the Michael Costa stable and took out his own licence after Costa moved overseas to train.

He has 20 in work at Kerlin Farm in Beaudesert.

The Morrison barn started with 20 gallopers – mostly from the Costa stable – when he first started out and has two horses remaining from his old mentor, The Ritz and Olympic Class.

He has 28 winners to his name in the three seasons he has been training.

“It is challenging,” he said honestly about the start of his tenure as a race horse trainer.

“I am trying to balance the books as well as getting results on the track, you are always grinding away at those two aspects of the business.

“Horse-wise, I am happy enough with that, and I always strive to do better, I am always trying to improve on what I am doing on a daily basis.

“It is also about trying to make the business side tick over and become financially sustainable going forward, which is very important.”

Morrison says he took two key learnings from his time under the guidance of Costa: patience with horses and identifying when the right time is to produce them at the races, as well as an intense focus on their health and fitness.

The Morrison camp has two city winners to its name so far.

Vivenzo will be ridden by Robbie Dolan in the $200,000 CCC Final on Saturday.

“He is in career best form at the moment and this is his grand final now on Saturday,” the trainer said.

“He could not be any better in his own physical way and being.

“We will just try and land mid-field with cover. As long as it is genuinely run enough and he can get some cover early, he is just a horse you do not want to use up to early.

“We would not want to be sending him forward from the barrier and hopefully get some momentum. He is going to be one of the better chances in the race when we line up his form against some of the others.”

As of Friday morning, Vivenzo is a $15 chance with bookmakers to claim the prize on Saturday afternoon.