Rarely has trainer Alwin Tan been this emotional after a race but the Singaporean handler had just witnessed a scintillating performance from War Affair that left him almost in tears.
The New Zealand-bred galloper, who was last year’s undisputed juvenile champion, stamped his class all over the $350,000 Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic over 1400m as he claimed an emphatic victory on Sunday.
Coming three weeks after his equally dominant success in the 3YO Sprint (1200m), War Affair has now claimed the first two legs of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge and looks the overwhelming favourite to complete a clean sweep, with his connection now turning their focus to the final leg, the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) on May 16.
For the moment however, it was time to savour this latest achievement that saw Tan struggling to find the words to express his admiration for War Affair, his most-prized asset.
“Super, just super,” he stammered. “I don’t know what else to say about this horse. There are no more words to describe him left. He’s just like a god.”
Indeed, it was a supernatural run by the O’Reilly three-year-old who with 57kg on his back clocked 1min 21.39secs on the Long Course, shattering his previous best effort by almost two seconds. More significantly, it was also less than a second outside the record of 1min 20.75secs set by Ace Aliado (who carried 51kg) in 2009.
“He keeps surprising us every time and never seems to stop improving,” said Tan, who took charge of War Affair late last year after he moved from Mark Walker’s yard.
“I feel so proud to have this horse in my stable and he’s been just an amazing horse to work with.”
Not even being forced out wide after jumping from the outermost barrier seems to stop War Affair, who was partnered for the third straight race by jockey Danny Beasley, as he easily beat Goodman (Corey Brown) by two lengths with Room For Excuse (Alan Munro) trailing a further three-and-a-quarter lengths behind in third.
“He’s the best 3YO out there. He’s the best horse I’ve sat on in Singapore and he’s still got improvements in him. I can’t thank the team and the owners enough for giving me this opportunity,” said Beasley, who shared a warm embrace with Tan after weighing out.
The short-priced favourite at $8, War Affair stuck to his familiar racing pattern of sitting in midfield and allowed early frontrunners Lucky Mission (Vagner Leal) and Straighttothepoint (David Flores) to slug it out at the head of the queue.
“He just flew out of the gates and after the first furlong, we were in a great position one wide off the fence and three back of the leader,” said Beasley, safe in the knowledge that his mount had several extra gears in him and an acceleration unmatched among his rivals.
“He’s a mile, mile-and-a-quarter horse but he can also run with the best sprinters.”
Once the field swung for home and the winning post was within sight, War Affair needed only the barest of invitation to throttle away.
“He was travelling so well that at the 600m I just had to give him a squeeze and he took off. He was always going to win,” said the Australian pilot, who was almost licking his lips at the prospect of unleashing War Affair’s untapped potential.
“We’ll just keep him ticking for the mile and he’s going to be even better in three weeks’ time.”
War Affair has now won eight times from 11 starts, including five “black type” titles, and is closing in on the $1 million mark in stakes earnings for the Warplan Racing Stable.
