If you thought Declaration of War (USA) was just a sire of stayers, you’d be wrong with his Australian bred son Voyage Warrior taking out the Group II Sprint Cup (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday.
The Ricky Yiu trained four year-old cemented his potential with a bold front running victory, his first tin a Black Type race.
The 23/1 shot relished the rain-affected turf and dominated his seven rivals under an inspired Vincent Ho. But 10 lengths adrift of victory’s heady rush, the 1.8 favourite Aethero trailed in last after he over-raced and then suffered a rough passage on the home turn.
Voyage Warrior was never headed and sprinted down the straight to finish three-quarters of a length in front of runner-up Hot King Prawn in a time of 1m 09.48s.
“It wasn’t the plan to lead but my horse pinged the gate and everyone else was holding, they didn’t want to lead, so I just gave him a soft lead and he ran home strongly,” Ho said.
“He enjoyed that ground a lot and he was so relaxed in front. Ricky’s horses are doing very well, the young ones too.”
Ricky Yiu was full of praise for Vincent Ho, who is fresh off completing a clean-sweep of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series aboard Aussie bred BMW Hong Kong Derby hero Golden Sixty.
“He’s a good jockey!” Yiu enthused as Ho and Voyage Warrior returned to unsaddle. “When you have a good jockey, you don’t tie them down to instructions – they always have Plan A, Plan B, even Plan C, depending on how the horse jumps, he knows if the horse is racing too strong or whatever – the good jockey uses his own judgement.”
Voyage Warrior burst onto the scene last term with three wins from four starts, achieved in blistering fashion, but this term he had mixed his form with one win from five prior to today’s first tilt at Group company.
“He’s maturing and that has meant he’s had some ups and downs, he’s had bad patches, but he’s improving and each time he’s gone over 1200 metres he’s run better,” Yiu said.
The four-year-old has spent time in the relative tranquility of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Conghua facility and the handler credited that experience as being a key factor in the Declaration Of War gelding achieving his first high-class win.
“He’s been to Conghua – he’s been there about three to four weeks and he’s much more relaxed now, he’s not pulling like he was.”
Voyage Warrior has won five of 10 starts and is another success story to come out of the NZB Ready to Run Sale where he was purchased by his trainer for $280,000.
He was a successful pinhook having been bought from the NZB Select Yearling Sale for $55,000 from the Henley Park draft by The Robt Dawe Agency.
Bred by New Zealander Bob Emery, but foaled in Australia, Voyage Warrior is a half-brother to stakes-winner Speech Craft and is one of four winners from Stravinsky (USA) mare Chaleur, who comes from the family of Group I winners Bezeal Bay and Wall Street.
He is the 26th stakes-winner for former Coolmore shuttler Declaration of War, best known here as the sire of Melbourne Cup winner Vow and Declare and Victoria Derby winner Warning.
