Weight-For-Age Test For Hidden Warrior In Victory Stakes

Hidden Warrior will contest the 2015 Victory Stakes at the Gold Coast this Saturday and trainer Gavin Yorke is extremely keen to see how the talented sprinter performs at weight-for-age level.

Hidden Warrior will take on the likes of Ball Of Muscle and Temple Of Boom in the 2015 Victory Stakes at the Gold Coast this weekend. Photo by: Steve Hart

Hidden Warrior will take on the likes of Ball Of Muscle and Temple Of Boom in the 2015 Victory Stakes at the Gold Coast this weekend. Photo by: Steve Hart

Hidden Warrior has not recorded a race win since he took out the Lidoran Group Spring Flying Handicap under the care of Paul Perry in November of 2013, but he has been a consistent performer since being transferred to the care of Yorke and he returned to racing with a very brave third in the Group 3 Hall Mark Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick last weekend.

Yorke believes that Hidden Warrior’s strong form as a younger horses means that his rating is too high to compete solely in handicap events and he is hopeful that the Hidden Dragon gelding will show that he is capable of being competitive at weight-for-age level when he contests the 2015 Victory Stakes tomorrow.

“He ran a really nice race in that and I thought that he would,” Yorke said of Hidden Warrior’s effort in the Victory Stakes.

Jimmy (Cassidy) has more experience than all of them put together for the miles that he has done riding, so that is why I spoke to Jimmy prior because I am looking to the horse to see if he can run weight-for-age.

“The benchmark system makes it very difficult to place this horse.

“He hasn’t won a race in two years, but he is still paying for getting beaten by Pierro.

“We have to look around.

“The owners backed me up and we gave him a good spell; he has matured, thickened up and he is enjoying his racing.

“The reason we are up here is to have a look at the weight-for-age and Jimmy will assess him for me.”

Hidden Warrior made the trip from Gosford to the Gold Coast yesterday and Yorke told Sky Racing HQ that the flooding in New South Wales made the trip far more difficult than usual, but he said that the five-year-old had taken no ill effects from the journey and he had settled in well ahead of the Victory Stakes.

“He has been around and he knows what is going on,” Yorke said.

“We got him to bed at about eight o’clock last night, everything was fine, he has been out to have a walk this morning and he should be bang on.”

Hidden Warrior is currently available at 2015 Victory Stakes odds of $15 with Ladbrokes, while Ball Of Muscle ($4.80) is now a narrow favourite in betting from Srikandi ($5) and Knoydart ($5).

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Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.