Dundeel four-year-old Willinga Rufio has stamped his class at Warwick Farm with a scintillating frontrunning display to open his spring campaign.
Controlling the Acrobat@Coolmore Handicap (1600m) throughout, Willinga Rufio ($1.95 fav) took his record to three wins from four starts, rated expertly by Tyler Schiller to cruise to a 2-3/4 length win over Kokoro ($3.80) with Estreet ($26) close up in third.
Trainer Mark Newnham has big hopes for Willinga Rufio but he is happy to be patient for now and says he will give the horse time to master his craft before potentially raising the bar to stakes grade.
“He is a very decent horse this horse,” Newnham said.
“Some of his work after a little break has been exceptional. I think he will get to a really good level.
“You can see there he’s not quite sure what he’s doing yet but raw talent is getting the job done.
“We won’t aim too high just yet, we will keep taking him through his grades and he can keep earning a nice bit of prizemoney and then we’ll aim up at something later in the carnival.”
Chris Waller also showcased a pair of promising horses at the Wednesday meeting in richly-bred colts Redeiner and Great Barrier Reef, who broke their respective maidens in consecutive races.
By Redoute’s Choice out of a half-sister to Snitzel, Redeiner did a good job to overcome a muddling run affair, surging through a late split for Hugh Bowman.
Great Barrier Reef is also bred in the purple being by I Am Invincible out of classy mare Cosmic Endeavour and Bowman says the three-year-old has the talent to get to black-type level if he keeps his mind on the job.
“I’ve got no doubt he’s got it in him,” Bowman said.
“He’s been a little bit elusive with putting his best foot forward at the races but today is a good start.”
Bowman and Waller ended the afternoon with a winning treble courtesy of talented four-year-old Democracy Manifest, the jockey and trainer fittingly to the fore on what was the 11th birthday of their former champion Winx, who is heavily in foal to Pierro.
