Peter Robl bounced straight back from a narrow Inglis Classic defeat with an impressive victory aboard promising three-year-old War Charm at Rosehill.
Robl looked all over a winner halfway up the straight on Diamond Earth in Saturday’s $250,000 Inglis Classic but the filly weakened over the concluding stages as Cavalry Rose overhauled her right on the line.
But it was a different story for Robl just 40 minutes later as the Danny Williams-trained War Charm produced the turn of foot of a horse going places to take out The Anthony Cocco Handicap (1350m).
“When I got a neck in front inside the 100-metre mark I thought ‘this one definitely isn’t going to be stopping’,” Robl quipped.
“It was a nice win from a horse starting to build a nice record and it proved his last-start win at Kembla was no fluke.”
War Charm’s victory, his fourth from five starts this campaign, has Williams reassessing his opinion of the son of General Nediym with the autumn carnival right on the doorstep.
“He just keeps improving, he’s a racehorse and he keeps taking the next step,” Williams said.
“We’ll have to keep going now. I have no idea where we’ll go to but we’ll just keep going. He’s got an extraordinary ability to recuperate after a race which is a great asset to have.”
Robl had War Charm ($8) three pairs back on the fence with favourites Angel Of Mercy ($2.90) and Hoylonny ($4.40) back in the field.
At the 200m mark Robl had to switch War Charm off heels and once clear he picked up strongly to hold a length advantage over Aberrant ($13) on the line with a nose to Cindarockinrella ($15) in third.
Angel Of Mercy tracked Hoylonny until straightening before switching back to the inside.
She had too much ground to make up and finished fifth, while Hoylonny was disappointing on face value coming in seventh.
Williams labelled the winner a real surprise package.
“To be honest I wasn’t confident the other day (at Kembla) and I wasn’t confident today,” he said.
“I was half-inclined to scratch the other day because I didn’t think he was good enough. But he just keeps taking that next step.”
AAP TURF
