CHAMPIONS WAY

2nd June 2019

Price Bloodstock’s rising star Champion’s Way signed off for the season with his sixth win from seven starts at Sha Tin on Sunday, breaking through in Group 3 class at the first attempt and throwing down the gauntlet to his rivals for the four-year-olds series next campaign.

Champion’s Way adjusted well to a stop-start tempo in the Lion Rock Trophy and was able to take advantage of his handicap edge to see off some battle-toughened older horses for six wins and a second from seven appearances, pushed his prizemoney past $8 million and trainer John Size is looking forward to the Classic Mile early in 2020.

“Now he’s rated over 100 and that’s a pretty good mark for a four-year-old to start the new season on – in fact, it’s about as good as it gets,” Size said. “If he’s got something to run at and has horses around him, he’s probably better schooled. If he has a couple of months off and comes out for his eighth start he’s probably going to do everything right. He hasn’t had any gear on him, he’s just done everything on his own; we haven’t tried to help him much because he keeps winning. I think he did a respectable job. They went out a little bit hard early and when they slowed up he had to make that adaption, which is not easy for a young horse. To win the race he had to get going – he probably had to be the first horse to move so it was a bit of a test of his racing aptitude, which obviously he hasn’t developed yet, and he still got away with the win. It was full of merit actually, I’m pretty happy with that.”

Jockey Joao Moreira pointed out that, despite his record, Champion’s Way is still learning about racing.

“I thought he should have won more easily than he did,” he said. “When I asked him to quicken, he picked up for me and felt like he was going to go on and win well. But he just snaked around again, he shifted and that cost him something. He still needs to learn but I’m not worried for the future. He’s a young horse and he is still learning so you have to be happy with what he has done so far and it looks like he will only get better next season.”