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The Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained Enjoy The Show made a winning start to his race career, taking out the Splice Construction 1200 on debut at Counties on Thursday.
The two-year-old son of Showcasing jumped away well from the ace barrier to take the early lead for jockey Matthew Cameron, before handing up to the Peter and Dawn Williams-trained Well Chosen.
To the urges of Cameron, Enjoy The Show accelerated down the straight to regain the lead at the 150m mark and was able to hold out a fast-finishing Folk Dress to win by a long head.
Co-trainer Murray Baker was pleased with the win and said the colt is showing a lot of early promise.
“He’s a promising colt,” he said. “He’s a Showcasing, they go well.
“He’s a half to a Rosehill Guineas winner and he has got a bit of pedigree, so I think he is a chance going on.”
Cameron was pleased with the debutants run and believes he will be competitive in further juvenile races in autumn.
“He’s a lovely little horse and he’s probably the natural two-year-old out of the three of Murray’s and Andrew’s,” Cameron said, referring to Custom Cruiser and Holy Mongolemperor, who finished fourth and fifth respectively.
“He jumped well, I didn’t want to lead. He hasn’t been around this way much. It was good to get a bit of a lead in to it. It was a bit daunting down the straight, but he got the job done.”
Enjoy The Show is now on a black-type path, with his connections eyeing a tilt at the Gr.1 Courtesy Ford Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Awapuni next month.
“We have got him nominated for the Sires’ and we’ll see from there,” Baker said.