Between them, Rain Affair and Buffering have run seven Group One seconds with the two to do battle for an elusive elite victory over the upcoming Brisbane carnival.
As he did a year earlier, Rain Affair returned to the runner’s-up stall after Saturday’s All Aged Stakes, his third second place at the highest level.
Buffering, who missed the Sydney autumn racing, returned to action at Doomben on the same day with a decisive win in the Group Two Victory Stakes.
The two sprinters are on a collision course to the Group One BTC Cup (1200m).
Rain Affair’s trainer Joe Pride was justifiably proud of the five-year-old’s performance to finish just a half length behind star colt All Too Hard on a firm surface which is not his preferred ground.
“It was fantastic,” Pride said.
“I think that was his career-best run.
“Last year he ran second to a superstar in Atlantic Jewel and now to another one in this colt.
“It’s his third Group One second and I know there’s a Group One win for him.
“He goes to to Brisbane for the BTC Cup and the Doomben 10,000 and maybe even the Stradbroke Handicap.
“And hopefully like other years, it rains up there during the winter carnival.”
Buffering ran second in the 2012 Doomben 10,000 and Stradbroke with his other two Group One seconds in the 2011 Patinack Farm Classic behind Black Caviar and last year’s Newmarket Handicap behind Hay List.
The Rob Heathcote-trained gelding is the reigning Queensland Horse of the Year.
Also a five-year-old, Buffering has had 31 starts for 12 wins and 11 placings while Rain Affair is comparatively lightly raced with 11 wins and four placings from 20 starts.
Damian Browne will ride Buffering in the BTC Cup on May 11 while Pride needs a new jockey for Rain Affair.
Craig Williams, who is now on his way to Japan for two months, rode Rain Affair on Saturday replacing Corey Brown who was at Morphettville to ride unplaced favourite Snitzerland in the Robert Sangster Stakes.
The Adelaide meeting was Brown’s last in Australia for four months with the jockey beginning a Singapore stint on Sunday.
