Warrior Wins Battle In Singapore

Warrior opened his Singapore account yesterday when the WS-bred son of O’Reilly landed the opening event at Kranji. Trained by Laurie Laxon and ridden by Joao Moreira, he broke through over 1400 metres after two previous fourth placings.

The five-year-old arrived from New Zealand in March, where he raced as Black Warrior from the Pukekohe stable of Gareth McRae, with a record of one second from four starts. He is out of the winning Sound Reason mare Black Sugar, who is a half-sister to Wong (Gr 1 Chipping Norton Stakes, Gr 1 George Ryder Stakes).

Domesky (Gr 2 Alister Clark Stakes) is a current member of the family.

Raced by Kelvin McGrail on behalf of Hong Kong-based owner Nancy Wong, Warrior was always in a handy spot on the rails before Moreira scrubbed him up for his move around runners at the point of turn and he went on to score by one length in the useful time of 1:24.58 for the 1400 metres on the turf track.

“Kelvin is the racing manager for Nancy Wong, who is the owner of this year’s Hong Kong Derby winner Fay Fay,” Laxon said.

“This horse has been a bit unlucky at his first couple of runs here but he’s got it right. He’s a big long striding horse and the 59kg on his back was never a worry.”