Champion jockey Manoel Nunes looked a little worse for wear after a recent track incident but still produced a gem of a ride to steer the well-backed Battle King home on Friday night.
The Brazilian rider hurt himself when unraced filly Elysium played up at a barrier trial on Thursday, knocking him around the lips.
Luckily, it was nothing too serious that would put him out of duty, though he did look a little bruised around the upper lips when he showed up at the races on Friday. Able to honour his book of six rides, he duly obliged on first-elect Battle King in the $65,000 Initiation race over 1400m, which certainly went a long way in helping him forget his painful experience at the Thursday trials.
Still, it was anything but an armchair ride from the outset. Besides giving the Battle Paint three-year-old a few solid smacks with the whip shortly after despatch, Nunes had all the trouble in the world to get his mount to settle in a good spot, being trapped four deep and in a rearward spot for most of the way.
When Nunes finally opted to bring Battle King onto the rails as a gap appeared to his inside, they went slamming into the path of Speed Craft who had to check severely, almost dislodging jockey Benny Woodworth, who lost his stirrups in the process.
Back on the rails, Battle King ran into dead ends when he straightened up, but the moment Nunes peeled him across heels in search of daylight on the outside, he immediately put in the big bounds to go and score by one length from the fighting pair of Sacred Klass (John Powell) and Mr Try (Shafiq Rizuan) who could not be split on the line.
The winning time was 1min 23.32secs for the 1400m on the Long Course.
“He’s still a baby. He was under pressure throughout the race,” said Nunes.
“They wanted to put blinkers on him, but I asked them to use winkers on him instead. He would be more lost with blinkers.
“I had to use the whip on him early as he was very shy. He just would not make any ground midfield and I found myself further back than I wanted.
“But when I was able to get him to the outside, he just flew in. I think he will be even better over more ground.
“My lips are still a bit swollen, but I’m okay. It was a new filly and I took a knock from her, but these things happen.”
Khoo, who was at a training double having earlier saddled Dr N Wing Fighters to a surprise win in Race 2, had on the other hand, been confident the third outing would be the right one for Battle King, whom he also owns. After a low-key debut in a 1100m race, Battle King showed potential at his second run when a closing third when stepped up to 1400m, which accounted largely for his $12 favourite tag on Friday night.
“I expected him to win. It was a good run,” said Khoo.
“It looked a bit tricky when he was so far back, but there was a lot of room to his outside and once he found it, he used his big strides to finish off strongly.
“He’s still very green but he’s improving all the time.”
