Honorius has some way to go before he matches his half-sister Igugu, the champion racehorse of South Africa including the 2011 winner of the Group 1 Vodacom Durban July at Greyville and the 2012 The J & B Met at Kenilworth, but he went some way to carving out his own career when winning the Balmsey Hill City Farm Juvenile Stayer at Rosehill on Saturday.
The race was the first of a series of staying races for two-year-olds and Rosehill trainer David Payne enthusiastically embraced the concept of giving the later maturing juveniles the ability to stretch out over longer distances.
A field of seven faced the starter and Fiveandahalfstar and Hugh Bowman led out after the field sorted itself out going into the back straight followed by Campania and Nikody.
Rowie and Christian Reith were parked three wide while Honorius and Glyn Schofield settled in fifth one out from the rails.
Reith decided to go forward on Rowie to eventually sit outside the leader as they went 2L ahead of the rest of the field as they travelled past the 1000m. Schofield was not perturbed and he stayed watching until the 500m.
Fiveandahalfstar and Bowman took a lead of 2L passing the 300m as Rowie found the staying task difficult. Schofield, meanwhile, was sending Honorius forward and he went through a large gap on the rails, and then angled outside the tiring Rowie.
Honorius had the forward momentum and he reached the lead with 200m to go and then went away with some ease with only stablemate Chez Harmony and Nathan Berry noticeably chasing him home from the rear of the field.
Grigori and Rod Quinn were third, the margin 1/2L. The time was 1.51.79 on the Dead 4 track that was upgraded to a Good 3 immediately after the race, with the final 600m in 36.61. Honorius paid $2.50 on NSW TAB as favourite.
“This is what you want if you want to give them a bit of grounding, they are bred to do it so get them fit and they do it, so very happy with that,” said Payne of the stable quinella.
“He is a nice horse so he will have a spell now and we will give him a bit of a chance and head to the Victoria Derby now. He can go off to the farm on Monday.
“It was a very good run from the filly and she will go to the next 1800m and then she will spell and then head to the Victoria Oaks."
“He has big shoes to fill to match Igugu but he has started off the right way. He has put back to back wins on the board and he stays very well, and these are races that are indicative of what they can do in the future,” said Schofield.
This was the second win in succession for Honorius after winning at Canterbury over 1550m on May 2nd.
