Sincero went to Scone with plenty of hype surrounding him and the exciting three-year-old left with his reputation enhanced after the $250,000 Inglis Guineas on Saturday.
Stephen Farley was a relieved trainer after watching his stable star sweep to the front in the straight and then extend his margin on Speediness to win the 1600m feature by 1-1/4-lengths with the same margin to Tigress Lily in third.
“I’m just relieved,” Farley said.
“He was always travelling well and (jockey) Chris (O’Brien) was confident on him. Once he gets to the front it takes a very good horse to get past him.
“I was a little bit nervous coming into today but it makes it easier when you’ve got a horse with ability like he has. That helped relieve the pressure a bit.”
Sent out a $1.55 favourite in search of his sixth straight win, Sincero was allowed to find his feet in the eight-horse field before O’Brien got him into clear running from the top of the straight and urged him to pick up from fifth position.
Victorian Speediness unleashed his run from last and appeared a genuine threat but Sincero ran to the front at the 200-metre mark and then asserted his dominance.
The three-year-old was the $1 million Stradbroke Handicap favourite before the Scone feature and he did his chances no harm ahead of his trip north where the Group Two QTC Cup (1300m) will be his next assignment.
Farley is yet to put a limit on the gelding’s potential.
“I don’t know how good he is, I really don’t,” Farley said.
“I’ve always known he had ability right from the start but the good thing with this horse is that he’s kept improving ability-wise and maturity-wise.
“He’s a very tough horse as well and not many can get past him when he gets to the front. He was arrogant today.”
O’Brien also has no doubts the best is yet to come and believes a Cox Plate tilt later this year is not beyond him.
“I actually said that to Crusher (Farley) a couple of months ago after one of his races at Randwick,” O’Brien said.
Colin Scott, trainer of Speediness, had to settle for second again after the Testa Rossa gelding was runner-up in the Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m).
However he was far from disappointed and said it took a good horse to beat him.
“It was just unfortunate we had to run into him (Sincero),” Scott said.
“Stephen has done a great job with Sincero, but I still think we’ve got a very good horse as well and he’ll be better again when he returns in the spring.”
AAP TURF mt/wb
