A Fine 4th

Both jockey Brenton Avdulla and Gerald were very pleased with KW's fine 4th in his trial yesterday. Brenton said he felt strong beneath him. Gerald may trial him again or go straight to a suitable 1200m race.

Trial Tuesday

KW will trial at Rosehill over 900m next Tuesday, 15th Feb. Trial time is 8.45am.
The field is-


1 BREAK CARD
Gerald Ryan
5X1271806X
22-4-2-2 $180500.00

2 KEY WEST
Chris Waller
6159X5929X
11-3-1-0 $145200.00

3 KHAMSIN WARRIOR
Gerald Ryan
653323456X
25-2-4-6 $55070.00

4 LA BIONDINA
Anthony Cummings
3026X51254
15-1-3-3 $28165.00

5 LADYS ANGEL
Joseph Pride
112X7113X
7-4-1-1 $140100.00

6 LEGSMAN (NZ)
John O'Shea
11X322433X
17-3-4-6 $137060.00

7 PURPLE
Peter Snowden
8X4332282X
28-6-6-5 $1137113.00

8 SAINT CHAPARRAL (NZ)
Chris Waller
43X
2-0-0-1 $7730.00

9
STAR OF OCTAGONAL
Todd Howlett
3X13211X0X
7-3-1-2 $636630.00

10
WARPATH
John O'Shea
131196X411
10-5-0-1 $117480.00

Back at Rosehill

KW arrived back at Rosehill today, coincidentally while Graham was there. Graham's much more experienced eye confirmed Geoff's opinion that he has beefed up some more.
Now we wait for the Gerald Ryan polish to be applied a la recent winners Dances on Waves, Ahdashim, Saramenha, Schiffer, Top Drop etc.

That's My Dad

For the second year running KW's sire, Invincible Spirit, has topped the European General Sires List by winners with 111 winners from 265 runners for total prizemoney of just over A$4,500,000. See pic from SMH The Form article by John Holloway at left.

Forty two of those winners were 2yos, a new world record, giving him the 2yo sire crown for the second time. He was previously leading sire of 2yos in 2006, his debut year in which he set a first season world record of 35 individual winners (bettered this year by Iffraaj with 36).

His top earner this year was Invincible Ash (IRE) (pictured) with over A$930,000

Coming in soon

KW is doing very well at pre-training at Cobbitty Lodge. Geoff visited recently and says that he seems to have thickened through the chest and hindquarters. His quiet and amenable nature makes him a favourite in the yard but once the saddle is on he definitely becomes a racehorse and when working with another horse wants to get to the front. However, as reported by both Corey Brown and Fiona Mylan, he has a tendency to want to stop for a chat rather than push past the leader so Mary, the new Manager of Racehorses at CL, is working on strategies to encourage him to run on. Gerald says that as soon as a place is available (ie a horse currently racing at Ascot Lodge goes for a spell) he will come in to commence full training for his next preparation.

Back at work soon

KW will return to pre-training soon after 7 weeks or so spelling at Caramar Park.
His residual cardio-vascular fitness from last preparation where he perfornmed creditably at City/Sat level will hopefully see him come to hand relatively quickly and all owners are looking forward to seeing him racing- and winning- again soon.
Highlight of last prep was undoubtably his fine 5th over 1800m in fast time at Rosehill on 11th sept. Those to finish less than 3.5 lengths in front of him that day were-

• Gigino (two city wins since)
• Stratofortress (won $185,000 Newcastle Gold Cup next start)
• Maluckyday (two city wins in Sydney plus won Lexus Stakes and 2nd Melbourne Cup since)
• Mr. Edison (two city wins since)

Setting our sights a little lower and over slightly shorter distances should result in a return to the winners list for our gallant steed.

Another Great Effort and a Well-earned Spell

KW's last start this prep was a great sixth over 2000m at Rosehill. Again coming from well back at the turn he kept coming all the way down the straight, running good sectionals all the way to the line, to get within 2.7 lengths of the winner who fluked the short way home along the rails while KW covered several lengths further down the outside.
Next preparation we'll keep him to slightly easier 1400-1600m races so that his natural finishing sprint can power him home, hopefully to several long overdue wins.

Rosehill again- Second Time Lucky?

KW will start again at Rosehill tomorrow over 2000m in a BM80 race. Again he is the lowest rated horse but we are expecting a bold showing nevertheless. Amongst his opposition will be Portos and Mr. Edison who have both finished in front of him in the last few weeks but 'Our Boy' is a fighter and with an easier run in transit than last week when caught three wide, we think he can turn the tables. If he has gas left in the tank at the 400 he can outsprint them in the run home.

Racing in Top Company

'Keep yourself in the best of company and your horses in the worst' is the old saying and we got the first part right on Sat 11th sept 2010 when a large contingent of owners saw KW (BM rating 65) finish a creditable fifth after being caught three wide the whole way in a BM80 race over 1800m at his home track of Rosehill. He only snuck into the hot field after scratchings and, starting at 50 to 1, 'Our Boy' again raced well above his rating against far better performed horses .
All owners were ecstatic at the performance and agreed that a win is close.

He's a Stayer

As the video shows, having left the opposition in their wake, Khamsin Warrior and Portos put on a Bonecrusher/Our Waverly Star style performance to fight out the finish of the 1800m NSWROA BM 70 Hcp on a heavy Randwick (Kensington) track.

Unfortunately for KW's owners and backers, depite being universally called the winner, the photo showed Portos had prevailed by the narrowest of margins.

Given that KW missed the start by at least a length and carried 1.5 kg more than the winner, the run was an indication that good wins are just around the corner for our new middle distance horse.

As this preparation progresses he seems to be absorbing all the work Gerald can give him and finding continual improvement as a result. There is no evidence of him lightening off, so Gerald says several more runs this time in are likely and he is confident of KW being on the other side of the judge's verdict very soon.

Next start is likely to be in a BM75 race over the same distance on the same track on Wed 18th Aug. Since his BM rating has only risen to 66 after last Wed, he will carry only 53.5kg on Wed week and must be a big chance. If the fine weather continues and the track dries out somewhat, he will get a chance to show his acceleration as well as his new-found staying ability. Watch him go then.