Lloyd Kennewell required only a brief viewing of Eternal Warrior to identify his suitability as an early-maturing type for juvenile majors, and the colt has fulfilled expectations by advancing to the Blue Diamond Stakes.
The fledgling competitor eyes the first Group 1 for two-year-olds in the $2 million Caulfield feature this Saturday.
The 1200-metre contest features no horse with more substantial heritage in Victoria’s flagship juvenile race than Kennewell’s $80,000 Magic Millions Adelaide purchase in partnership with Blueblood Thoroughbreds.
Devout Hero, by No Nay Never, is Eternal Warrior’s dam, and her mother Perfect Persuasion is sibling to 2004 Blue Diamond star Alinghi.
Sired by Rosemont’s Extreme Warrior, from the first crop and a son of 2016 Blue Diamond winner Extreme Choice, the colt intrigued Kennewell greatly.
“Matty Becker and I do our work together and we thought he was an early two-year-old, hence the reason we were keen to dive in,” Kennewell said.
“We liked him a lot obviously. We thought if he wasn’t the best colt, he was close to it, in Adelaide.
“He’s obviously got a very good pedigree, we’ve had a bit of luck with Extreme Choice and I thought he looked like an Extreme Choice.
“So we were looking at him as a cheaper version of an Extreme Choice colt.”
On November 29 at Caulfield, Eternal Warrior delivered on promise with a $41 debut success in the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes (1000m).
Focus moved to this Saturday after a creditable third in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) on February 7, positioning him ideally according to Kennewell.
Victory in the Prelude belonged to $8 Blue Diamond hope Closer To Free, from $5 runner-up Guest House. The colt is $13 in Diamond books.
“Normally my horses have had two trials going into a race first-up, but we planned deliberately to only have the one to be peaking for the Grand Final,” Kennewell said.
“His race in the Prelude showed exactly that. Damian (Lane) thought he was going to win when he straightened up and he just blew out the last 100.
“He had the fastest last 800, 600, 400 of the race but just peaked on his run late.
“We were really, really happy and his work on Monday morning was super. Damian came in and galloped him and was really happy with him.
“We were just wishing we got a lot better draw than what we got dished up.”
Drawing post 16 originally, Eternal Warrior moves to 13 barring entry of the three emergencies, for a full field of 16.
Kennewell banks on barrier experience from wide starts before – 13/13 debut, 8/8 Prelude – to navigate the challenge.
“He’s drawn wide every start, so he’s shown that he can do that and hopefully it will work out for us,” he said.
Saturday sees Damian Lane retain the partnership, pursuing a breakthrough Blue Diamond Stakes win post last year’s second on Tentyris behind Devil Night.
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