Change of plans

KW has pulled up so well after his unlucky third at Hawkesbury it has been decided to postpone his spell and give him another chance to break his maiden status. He has been nominated for a 1400m Maiden at Hawkesbury next thursday. This will be his longest race to date and if they go a little slower early and he settles well then he may get a chance to show his stuff at the business end of the trip.

Eddie's Comment

"Saw the replay and I agree KW was stiff in not getting the run when Orphelia came out ahead of him. His 1st and last run this preparation were his best and consistent with his breeding. Mental and physical strengthening on hilly paddocks will do wonders for his large frame. It does look as if KW can run on all type of ground as well which is a bonus. Gerald has him sorted out and deserves 3 cheers! We must remember KW is VOBIS nominated so a preparation in Melbourne next time around could help syndicate play catchup in $stakes ( huge increases in prizemoney in Vic as of next month)."
Best regards
Eddie

A Good Third

He didn't win but it was not for lack of trying. KW showed more tenacity than in previous starts in coming from near the tail of the field to finish only just over a length from the winner.
The field was not strong and on form he looked a likely winner. Certainly someone thought so as they backed him in from $8.70 to $4.50 fav in the last few minutes of betting.

Graham's report summed it up nicely-

"A very good run from The Warrior today. Looked great and Gerald and Brad and the Team have done a good job with him. If he gets the run on the turn that the winner got, we win the race. Jay was a bit unlucky in that Orphelia got the run first and pushed in on us. As it was we were only beaten a length and we could have easy won by that length.

I would not be surprised if Gerald decides to give him a break now and we will have a very nice 1600m horse on our hands next prep. He is definitely a horse worth persevering with." Graham

HORSE PROGRESS NOTES

Just got this from Gerald-

KHAMSIN WARRIOR
20/01/09

Accepted up at Hawkesbury on Thursday 22nd January 2009

Does look better in himself and his work has improved, if the horse runs up to his work he'll be winning a maiden easy. After this race win, lose or draw I'd like to spell him and give him a good break of 8 to 10 weeks but will get over Thursday first.


3 - 2:25 HILLS NEWS MAIDEN HANDICAP (3)
1300 M
Of $16000. 1st $10400, 2nd $3200, 3rd $1600, 4th $800. Starter Subsidy: $200
for non-prize earning runners. MAIDEN. BOBS Bonus available: $5,000 Apprentices
can claim. Field Limit: 14+4 EM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No. Horse Trainer Jockey Barr Wgt
1 Kirribilli John Holgate Blake Spriggs (a3) 2 58
2 Crowd Control Brian Firth Josh Adams (a3) 4 56
3 Greenfield Rise Garry White Tye Angland 8 55.5
4 Slippery Madam Anthony Cummings Grant Buckley 3 55.5
5 Super Samaurai Tommy Wong Kanichiro Fujii 1 55.5
6 Monte Rocket Vic Bates Craig Agnew 6 55
7 Benny da Loup Terance Rae Nathan Cumberland 10 54.5
8 In Private Lee Curtis Jeff Penza 13 54.5
9 Jewel King Rod Craig Glyn Schofield 9 54.5
10 Khamsin Warrior Gerald Ryan Jay Ford 11 54.5
11 Miss Reiby Noel Mayfield-Smith Jon Grisedale 7 54.5
12 Orphelia Gabrielle Englebrecht Ms Kathy O'Hara 5 54.5
13 Paddo Princess James Bester Nathan Berry (a2) 12 54.5

Put the Moet on ice..........

Start No. 5

Khamsin Warrior's fifth start will be in a 1300m maiden at Hawkesbury next Thursday, 22nd Jan.

KW's form made look good

Khamsin Warrior's fifth at Gosford has been put into perspective by fourth placegetter Soulima, who was only just caught on the line in the $100,000 MAGIC MILLIONS 3YO+ MDN PLATE over 1200m at the Magic Millions raceday at the Gold Coast track yesterday.
Soulima beat KW by only 0.4 lenghts at Gosford so on form his time must be near.

Aussie Spirit going strong too

Invincible Spirit had a productive day today in Australia with a winner (Our Lona) and a fourth (Spirit Bay)in race 5 at Caulfield whilst Invincible Doll won her maiden at Stony Creek. A 3yo, like KW, Invincible Doll ran third, fifth and fourth before breaking through today.
Invincible Spirit has now had four winners, five seconds, five thirds and four fourths in the last month.

That's the Spirit

The Northern Hemisphere racing season has just concluded and as expected the Champion All European, third-season sire was KW's dad Invincible Spirit with progeny prizemoney totalling $4,445,159.
Invincible Spirit finished a close second to Rock of Gibraltar in 2007 after winning in 2006 in sensational fashion when he set a new world record for the most winners in his first season.
The race to become leading third-season sire of Great Britain for 2008 went right down to the wire. With days to go Invincible Spirit inched in front of Kyllachy but the son of Pivotal fought back to win by a mere $7153.
Invincible Spirit was also leading third-season sire of Ireland with $ 1,197,706 (def. Rock of Gibraltar, $697,275) and Italy with $632,694 (def. Sakhee, $586,365).
In all he produced 80 winners from 182 runners (an impressive 44%).

Spot On

Steve, your commentary is "spot on". I agree with every aspect of your summary and Josh Parr's thoughts.
Yes, Gerald wanted the shorter race to teach him to come on strong at the end and yes, I too noted the erratic last 150m.
I think Josh Parr will be an ideal rider for KW. It was the perfect ride despite KW's other ideas.
I'm very confident of the future and more so the long term future in the better longer races!!!
All the best and I hope we see another run or two before a spell?
All the best to the Group
David

Lessons from Gosford

I went to Gosford on Monday to watch KW run and I thought I would pass on a few comments. After all the stormy weather, the track was rated a slow 6 but was upgraded to a dead 5 before KW's race. His first race on a wet track was a good one (the Zabeel coming out of him). After the race, jockey Josh Parr said he was confident that KW "should have easily run 3rd". After being switched to the outside, KW was making good ground but ducked in over the concluding stages and lost all momentum. Josh said the 1100m was too short for KW: "he wanted to plod along in the straight whilst the others sprinted". It is good to note that whilst the others were sprinting, KW was able to keep up with them whilst he was plodding along as Josh put it. Josh Parr’s other comment was that he "feels like a good 1400m or 1600m horse" and he "would love to ride KW over the mile". He said KW showed him that he has the ability, he is just not getting everything right yet.

The negatives were that Josh said KW wanted to do everything at a 100 miles per hour. Josh was struggling to hold KW back when they were running down to the barriers. Whilst in the barriers, KW also got a bit worked up. Whilst he settled better this time, he didn't settle 100%. Josh suggested giving KW another couple of runs over the shorter distances for education purposes. Gerald seemed more inclined to spell him but if he recovers well, he said he might have another run.

Gerald commented to me that KW has more talent than he is showing on the racetrack so far (this seems to be justified by the comments of Josh Parr and Rod Quinn). I think he expected KW to have won a decent race by now. Hopefully he can have a one more run where he can show more of his talent. We can then spell him and bring him back after the autumn carnival.

I think Mondays race was further evidence that being ridden quietly at the beginning of the race is definitely the right way to ride him. He reminds me a bit of Sam Sung A Song (also trained by Gerald a few years ago). He needed to be ridden stone cold and if he was, he had an amazing turn of foot in the straight. With KW getting fired up very easily in his races, I think that if he is ridden stone cold out the back, he may be better prepared mentally to have a greater finishing burst. The idea being to keep him relaxed until the final 200-300m of the race. That will also allow him to get over a bit more distance eventually.

I hope to see you all in the winners stall soon... all the best for 2009!!

Kind regards,
Steve