NZ 3YO Continues to Dominate in Singapore

The dominance of Kiwi three-year-old War Affair (NZ) (O’Reilly) has continued in Singapore with a convincing display in the S$100,000 Newgate Farm Stakes over 1400m last night at Kranji giving him a clean sweep of the first two legs of Singapore’s new More Magic 3YO Championship.

War Affair (NZ) eased down to win the S$100,000 Newgate Farm Stakes at Kranji. Photo courtesy of STC.

The son of O’Reilly came into the race having won the first leg of the Championship over a similar field in resounding fashion and started a short-priced favourite for New Zealand trainer Mark Walker.

Ridden off the pace by Singapore’s leading jockey Joao Moreira, War Affair was last as the field entered the straight. Moreira got his mount into the clear at the 400m mark and he unleashed a strong turn of foot as he swept to the lead and was eased down to win by more than two lengths.

With Rikioh in second, fellow Karaka graduate Desert Fox (Not a Single Doubt) had to once again settle for third behind War Affair, filling the same placing as the pair’s last start.

The Karaka Premier Sale graduate War Affair has only suffered defeat once in his six start career and has earned his owners, the Warplan Syndicate, S$440,482 in prizemoney.

“He just keeps improving and I think when he gets to 1600m he will get better again,” commented Walker.

“In his last couple of wins he had drawn barrier one so we took advantage of that but he is a very versatile sort of horse but you can put him anywhere in a race.

“He will go to the next race in the Series that is three weeks away now.

“He has got size and scope and he hasn’t really filled out into his big frame yet. He is untapped really, he has a lot of potential.”

The gelding is to aim at a clean sweep of the 3YO Championship when he contests the Group 3 S$150,000 More Magic Ready To Run Sales 2013 Championship (1600m) on 13 October.

War Affair is out of the unraced American mare Kristique (Kris S), a daughter of four-time Group 1 winner Nastique (Naskra). He was bred by Trelawney Stud and sold by them at the 2012 Karaka Premier Sale, purchased by Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis for $70,000.

New Zealand-bred horses picked up three other races on the programme last night with Karaka graduates German Roulette (NZ) (Castledale) and Custodian (NZ) (Remind) also scoring victories.