O’Reilly’s son superior again

Star O’Reilly three-year-old War Affair is two-thirds of the way to a perfect clean sweep in the inaugural More Magic 3YO Championship series in Singapore. He crushed his peers last night in another dominant victory in the second leg, the $100,000 Newgate Farm Stakes (1400m).

A first-up winner of the Premier Racing Partnership Stakes (1200m) three weeks ago, he came from last for another commanding victory at Kranji. Beaten just once from six starts, War Affair is well on course for the third leg of the new series, the Gr 2 More Magic Ready To Run Sales 2013 Championship (1600m) on October 13, with trainer Mark Walker looking forward to testing the gelding at a metric mile.

“This horse will keep improving with more distance,” Walker said. “It will be his first time over the mile, but the way he is going it should not be a problem for him at all. From the draw today, I told Joao (Moreira) to go back and ride him like he was the best horse in the race. Even though he tailed off early, I was always confident he was the best horse and would finish the strongest. There was a bit of buffeting in the home straight, but that’s him. He just runs about a bit.”

Moreira again paid tribute to War Affair’s abundant talent. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he was the best two-year-old and he’s clearly the best three-year-old now,” he said. “He’s a dream horse to have for anybody and I’m just the blessed boy to be sitting on top of him.”