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WS stallions continued their domination of a Gr 3 feature sponsored by the Chittick family when Antonio Lombardo dug deep to win Saturday’s Two-Year-Old Classic at the Pukekura Raceway. He is a son of resident stallion pins who also sired last year’s winner and Matamata homebred Icepin while O’Reilly provided the 2009 winner in Seven Schillings.

Trained by Peter McKay, Antonio Lombardo had overcome a tough run at his previous start to finish runner-up in the Karaka Million and earlier in the season had landed the Listed Wellesley Stakes at Trentham. “He’s bred to be a better three-year-old so everything he’s doing at the moment is a bit of a bonus and I’m sure he’s going to go on with it,” McKay said.

The colt was taken to the front on Saturday by Opie Bosson and was travelling comfortably on the turn. However, the Australian visitor Chateauneufe Dupape challenged strongly 150 metres from home and got his head in front but Antonio Lombado wasn’t done with and fought back valiantly to earn a nose decision for the third win of his seven start career.