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Mighty Warrior’s Sunday win gave James Peters yet another vote of confidence as the assistant-trainer slash caretaker trainer counts down towards his official debut as a full-fledged trainer in April.
The Englishman was allocated racing stables during the week for a takeover from his boss Michael Freedman that had been in the pipeline since the Australian trainer announced he was going home last December.
With March 31 being Freedman’s last day at Kranji, Peters has been keeping the home fires burning and ensuring a seamless transition for the team since the beginning of the year, with the current tally of 10 winners and a sixth spot on the ladder shaping up as a more than fitting farewell gift to Freedman.
As Peters was seen heading to the winner’s circle in close discussion with Mighty Warrior’s entourage headed by Mr Andre Lim of Super Easy fame, the former track rider has certainly taken to the more frontline role like a duck to water.
One of the post-win talks revolved around a possible shot at the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge for the son of Savabeel.
“He’s four and obviously we’ll have to consider the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge. He can stay for sure,” said Peters, an avid West Ham United fan who has unsurprisingly picked claret as his future stable colours.
“I told Elione (Chaves) to ride him more positive out of the barrier. It was important to be up there in that first run to the bend.
“That’s the key to him. We rode him back in midfield before and that didn’t suit him.“He travelled well throughout and he won a nice race in the end. He’s got a little bit of class about him.”
Chaves said Mighty Warrior was raring to go in the middle stages of the mile race but was not as willing when he got to the front.
“I sat behind the leader (Kings Ryker) throughout but he was very keen and wanted to go. I held him back but when he got the gap in the home straight and hit the front, he pulled up on me,” said the Brazilian jockey.
“He’s in a way still a bit green but he’s a nice horse and I have no doubt he can go further.”
Mighty Warrior ($22) still scored top marks in the way he drew clear inside the last furlong, going away to win by two lengths from favourite Clutha Lad (Oscar Chavez) who took a while to free himself from traffic at the top of the straight. Lake Huka (Corey Brown) also ran on well for third another neck away.
The winning time was 1min 39.63secs for the 1600m on the Polytrack.
With that fifth win, Mighty Warrior has now taken his stakes earnings past the $260,000 mark for the Super Team Stable.