Chad Schofield is an unabashed fan of debut winner Without Peer after the youngster overcame his inexperience to outclass his Rosehill rivals.
Despite racing greenly in the straight, the Ciaron Maher-trained two-year-old unleashed a strong finishing sprint from near the tail to down Spicy Prawn ($5) by a short neck in Saturday’s Traffic Warden @ Darley Handicap (1200m).
Schofield said the juvenile had plenty of scope and the fact he managed to win while still doing things wrong was testament to his talent.
“He just won today on pure, raw ability so that’s very exciting going forward because I think he’s got a stack of improvement,” Schofield said.
“My instructions were to let him balance up, travel, and I was told he’d be very strong late.
“When he quickened as well as he did with me early in the straight, I was very confident.”
Without Peer was sent out an $11 betting site chance and Maher’s Sydney helmsman Johann Gerard-Dubord admitted they hadn’t expected him to win.
But he echoed Schofield’s sentiment that Without Peer had a bright future and expected to press on with him into the early season races.
“It’s that time of the year where you have to. He is still furnishing so we’ll give him a bit of time between runs and he will just keep improving,” Johann-Dubord said.
“I didn’t think he was going to win today. I thought he’d be strong late and improve a lot off the back of that.
“He’s got a lot of maturing to do physically and mentally so that’s a bonus today.”
So You Think filly Reflect ($14) was doing her best work late to grab third, 1-3/4 lengths behind the runner up in an encouraging return.
