Chad Schofield has praised Without Peer following the colt’s impressive debut victory at Rosehill, highlighting his raw talent and potential despite inexperience.

The Ciaron Maher-trained two-year-old was slow to settle but delivered a powerful late burst to defeat Spicy Prawn ($5) by a narrow margin in the Traffic Warden @ Darley Handicap (1200m) on Saturday.

“He just won today on pure, raw ability so that’s very exciting going forward because I think he’s got a stack of improvement,” Schofield said.

“My instructions were to let him balance up, travel, and I was told he’d be very strong late. When he quickened early in the straight, I was very confident.”

Sent out at $11, Without Peer exceeded expectations with Maher’s assistant Johann Gerard-Dubord admitting they weren’t anticipating a win.

“I didn’t think he was going to win today. I thought he’d be strong late and improve a lot off the back of that,” Gerard-Dubord said.

“He’s still furnishing, so we’ll give him time between runs and he’ll just keep improving.”

So You Think filly Reflect ($14) finished off strongly to grab third in a pleasing return, 1-3/4 lengths off the runner-up.

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