Two Year Old Honours

Date: 25 Jul 2013

Two Year Old Honours

The Singapore Turf Club reports that Te Akau's 2YO War Affair is in line for 2YO season champion honours should he win on Sunday -

The Mark Walker-trained War Affair can assure himself of Champion Two-Year-Old honours with victory in the Group 3 $200,000 Juvenile Championship over 1200m on Sunday.

War Affair showed his class when successful in the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe over 1200m on May 17 before going for a break.   The son of O'Reilly has had just three starts, winning his last two in impressive fashion.

War Affair Grp2

War Affair and Joao Moreira on their way to victory in the Aushorse Golden Horseshoe in May.

He will have the services of champion jockey Joao Moreira on Sunday.

Walker said War Affair would round off his preparation for the Juvenile Challenge with a gallop on Wednesday morning.

“We don't do too much with him as we are worried he may become too dour for the 1200m trip,” said Walker.

“So we've kept him fresh for Sunday's race. He's happy and well but at the same time there will be some improvement to come from him after Sunday's race.    He's going to love to get up to the 1400m and the mile (1600m) the way he races and I'm looking forward to stepping him up in distance.”

War Affair showed continued improvement at his initial campaign. After a debut fourth - where he made a stack of ground to finish fourth behind Peace No War over 1200m on April 21 - he came out and won over 1200m on May 3 from Bringithome.

It was then on to the Aushorse Golden Horseshoe where he toyed with his rivals, scoring a two length victory on May 17 and in the process broke the 1 min 10 sec barrier for the victory.   Walker gave the two-year-old a freshen up following that win and the gelding was seen on the track when finishing third behind Yin Jie in a 1000m barrier trial on July 16.

“We sent him up the hill to the resting stables for three weeks after his win in the Golden Horseshoe,” said Walker.

“He had a nice quiet trial last week with Joao on him. He's not a horse that you have to do a lot with as he's a clean-winded sort of horse.   The small field (there are just nine nominations) will also suit him. There was a full field of 16 in the Golden Horseshoe and he was good winning that.   This is better for him with the small field and he seems very well within himself.”

The New Zealand-bred two-year-old (bought by David Ellis from Karaka) has already topped the $226,000 mark in prizemoney from his three race starts for Warplan Racing Stable with the promise of more to come.

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