Keep The Faith well and truly fulfilled the expectations of his owners, Darley Australia Syndicate, when he won the Schweppervescence Cup over 1600m at Caulfield this afternoon.

Dictating the pace from the outset, the near black son of Sunday Silence reeled off effortless 35 second sectionals to win eased down in a time of 1:35.38, only 0.28 seconds away from Northerly's track record.

With all his rivals off the bit at the home turn, jockey Patrick Payne gave Keep The Faith ($1.60-$1.90-$1.70) just the slightest hint that he wanted him to accelerate and he put 5 lengths on the rest of the field before being given an easy time in the run to the line to win by 2¾ lengths from Our Smoking Joe ($21.00) with Modern Era ($10.00-$13.00) a long neck further behind. 35.84

In pre race discussions, trainer Tony McEvoy was enthusiastic about Keep The Faith, saying "I never get sick of looking at this horse".

Keep The Faith has a deceiving action which makes him look as if he is going slower than he actually is.

"He has a high cruising speed," said McEvoy. "He's a natural athlete, who doesn't need a lot of work to keep him fit."

Keep The Faith is a natural candidate to assume stallion duties at Darley's showpiece Hunter Valley stud if he continues his rapid progress as a racehorse. Although winning only a Listed class race today, he has progressed from a Group 3 placing in the Vain Stakes at Caulfield in his last campaign in the Spring.

This campaign will be the one to set Keep The Faith on the path to racing greatness if his planned campaign is anything to go by. His next planned race will be the Group 1 Kia Ora Stud Canterbury Guineas on March 13th with a final target of the Group 1 San Miguel AJC Derby on 10th April.

"I'm thinking we'll go directly from the Canterbury Guineas to the Derby," said McEvoy, "but we might run in the Rosehill Guineas in between if he needs the run."

A lot of horses racing in South Australia and Victoria have problems handling the clockwise way of galloping in Sydney, but Keep The Faith should have no difficulty. He was noted leading with the wrong leg for most of the straight today, but switched to the correct lead when eased down by Payne close to the post. This natural ambidexterity stands the horse in good stead for a Sydney campaign.

Should he pick up either or both of these races, Keep The Faith will justify the $1.2 million paid for him by Darley when he was purchased at the 2002 Inglis Easter Sale. Consigned in the Arrowfield Stud draft, he was conceived in Japan when his dam, Duelling Girl, was sent there as a part of a collection of mares arranged to be served to Southern Hemisphere time by Arrowfield boss John Messara.

Sadly Sunday Silence's death last year has put a stop to such activities, but his bloodlines will certainly not be lost to Australia if Keep The Faith can repay the faith of his owners by winning some big races.

PICS - Quentin Lang.

© Cyberhorse 2024 Bill Saunders Published 21/02/04