Mick Price & Michael Kent Jnr have claimed victory in the Group 3 Kevin Heffernan Stakes, with Welwal kicking off his career with a first-up win for his new connections at Caulfield on Saturday afternoon.
The son of Shalaa last raced in May for Chris Waller, and with only two jumpouts to his name before his fresh run, horse racing bookmakers appeared to have let him get under their guard, jumping as a $23 outsider in the penultimate event.
Buffalo River ($14) was back to his old tricks early on the contest, as he sprinted clear to a two-length lead by the halfway mark of the 1400m journey, which allowed Arkansaw Kid ($4.80) and Warnie ($9) to get a perfect trail in behind.
Tuvalu ($2.25), the race favourite with Neds, couldn’t have asked for a better run on the fence in fifth, while Luke Currie aboard the eventual winner followed the favourite everywhere he went.
Warnie and Arkansaw Kid took over early in the straight, and it looked as though they would fight out the finish; however, Currie was taking runs along the inside and finally got into clear by the 100m mark.
When Currie hit the go button, Welwal lengthened quickly to chase down Arkansaw Kid, and he grabbed him in the concluding stages to claim a narrow first-up win.
2024 Kevin Heffernan Stakes replay – Welwal
Mick Price represented the winning stable in the post-race interview.
“We do have very good form analysts, Hayden and ‘Junior’ who get their heads down and they’re all over lots of horses and the data this and the data that, but I leave them to it and they run their own race a little bit,” Price said of his team.
“A very, very good old-time stable client Alf Gauci is in it.
“Tuesday morning, me and Currie stood there and he had a big blow so we thought ‘it’ll need the run’.
“So, I’m sort of in trouble but, Alf, when you win the big one (The Supernova), you’ll thank me.
“You’d be mad if you didn’t (go to the Supernova), wouldn’t you?
“We’ve had to reshape him a bit, feet and just, in general, kilometres done on a horse of his age and stage.
“He’s obviously got the ability but we’ll just need to keep him young and fresh and that’s probably what he was. He probably needs to be a little underdone a little bit, a typical Shalaa.”
Luke Currie admitted that he may have been wrong by thinking Welwal was a little underdone during the week.
“I jumped him out and worked him through the week and I thought he was probably coming in a little bit underdone, so it goes to show what a good judge I am,” Currie said.
“I thought when we were making our run through, yes, and then Arkansaw Kid gave a bit of a kick when he felt us there.
“It was a good effort to still be strong through the line when I still think he’s got a bit of improvement in him.
“He had a lovely run, he travelled great but I was aware that horse was going to be hard to run down.”
Horse racing news