Voyage Warrior (Declaration Of War) went a long way to fulfilling his prodigious potential with a make-all win in the Gr.2 Sprint Cup (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday.
The New Zealand Bloodstock sales graduate shot relished the rain-affected turf and dominated his seven rivals under an inspired Vincent Ho.
Voyage Warrior was never headed and sprinted down the straight to finish three-quarters of a length in front of runner-up Hot King Prawn (Denman) in a time of 1m 09.48s.
“It wasn’t the plan to lead but my horse pinged the gate and everyone else was holding, they didn’t want to lead, so I just gave him a soft lead and he ran home strongly,” Ho said.
“He enjoyed that ground a lot and he was so relaxed in front. Ricky’s horses are doing very well, the young ones too.”
Trainer Ricky Yiu – one win clear at the head of the trainers’ premiership – piled praise on the rider, who is fresh off completing a clean-sweep of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series aboard BMW Hong Kong Derby hero Golden Sixty (Medaglia d’Oro).
“He’s a good jockey!” Yiu enthused as Ho and Voyage Warrior returned to unsaddle. “When you have a good jockey, you don’t tie them down to instructions – they always have Plan A, Plan B, even Plan C, depending on how the horse jumps, he knows if the horse is racing too strong or whatever – the good jockey uses his own judgement.”
Voyage Warrior burst onto the scene last term with three wins from four starts, achieved in blistering fashion, but this term he had mixed his form with one win from five prior to today’s first tilt at Group company.
“He’s maturing and that has meant he’s had some ups and downs, he’s had bad patches, but he’s improving and each time he’s gone over 1200 metres he’s run better,” Yiu said.
The four-year-old has spent time in the relative tranquility of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Conghua facility and the handler credited that experience as being a key factor in the Declaration Of War gelding achieving his first high-class win.
“He’s been to Conghua – he’s been there about three to four weeks and he’s much more relaxed now, he’s not pulling like he was.”
Yiu expects to pitch his emerging talent into the Gr.1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) at FWD Champions Day on Sunday, 26 April, when he is likely to lock horns again with Hot King Prawn.
“We’ll keep him over 1200 (metres),” he said. “He’ll be against the same horses in the Group 1 next time. He’s going to go up a lot in the ratings but it doesn’t matter now, he’s in the Group races.”
Bred by well-known racing identity Bob Emery, Voyage Warrior was purchased by bloodstock agent Robert Dawe for $55,000 from the Henley Park draft at the 2017 Select Sale at Karaka before being reoffered later that year at the Ready To Run Sale of two-year-olds where he was knocked down to the $280,000 bid of Ricky Yiu out of the JK Farm draft.
He is the younger half-brother to well-performed sprinter Speech Craft (Oratorio) who won seven of his 53 starts including the Listed Hallmark Stud Handicap (1200m) at Ellerslie.
