Warlike Winner

Date: 4 May 2013

Warlike Winner

An exciting finish saw the two top fancies War Affair, trained by Mark Walker, and Bringithome finish 1-2 in the penultimate Leg of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe series, the $90,000 Inglis Sydney Juvenile Stakes Open (1200m) on Friday night.

After running a promising debut fourth to Peace No War in the fourth Leg two weeks ago, $9 favourite War Affair franked that form when he came with a sustained run under Joao Moreira to get the better of second favourite ($16) and debutant Bringithome (Tengku Rehaizat) inside the final 100m to score with three parts of a length to spare.

Bringithome, who had an impressive barrier trial win under his belt, took up the running after spearing over from his outside gate, and looked like the one to beat when he rolled to the top of the straight, still full of running, but once Moreira peeled War Affair out for his run, there was no second-guessing the final outcome.

To illustrate the clear superiority of the winner and his runner-up, third-placed Dragon Walk (Manoel Nunes) was back in third, a gap of just under four lengths away. War Affair ran the 1200m on the Long Course in the smart time of 1min 10.23secs.

Being a New Zealand-bred, bought by David Ellis from the New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Sale, War Affair (x O'Reilly) did not qualify for the $30,000 bonus, but winning trainer Mark Walker can no doubt look forward to more returns from him further down the road.

“He's an overgrown horse, who probably shouldn't be doing what he is doing now,” said the Kiwi handler.

“He won tonight's race on natural ability. We'll probably give him one more run and put him aside.”

That one more run is more likely going to be the last Leg of the six-race juvenile series, the $325,000 Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe (1200m) on May 17.

“We'll see how he pulls up. Obviously, if he's all right, he will then go towards the final Leg in two weeks' time,” he said.

Moreira, who has been his partner at both runs, said he would have been disappointed if he did not win second-up.

“He was probably not ready at his first race. He was looking around and was getting plenty of kickback in his face,” said the leading Brazilian rider.

“He jumped very well tonight and was a lot closer than at his debut. He was always in a good spot and I could feel he would not let me down tonight. I did not pull the stick on him in the end as I felt he would get there just riding him hands and heels. I just kept riding him along and nursing him to the line.

“I actually think it could have been worse if I had used the stick on him as he's only a baby. He's certainly got a very bright future here.”

War Affair is owned by the Warplan Racing Stable, who also races Warspirit in the same purple and orange stars silks, but under the Very Stable banner.

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