Four-year-old gelding, Harbourmaster, made it two wins from two starts this prep as the progression from maiden grade proved no hurdle for this improving galloper. After clocking his debut win three weeks ago on his home synthetic track, the son of Cable Bay brought up the double with a metropolitan win in South Australia, taking out a benchmark-60 event over 1550-metres at Morphettville Parks. It wasn’t an easy watch for his backers, however, who no doubt had a nervous moment at the 300-metre mark when jockey Mitch Aitken had a lapful of horse and nowhere to go. But Aitken pushed at a gap and his mount responded, bursting through to put his rivals and the race to bed. Post-race, the hoop was full of praise for Harbourmaster. “Really happy with this guy”, he said. “We just had to wait for our time, for a gap to open and when it did, he shot through”. Trainer Henry Dwyer echoed these comments. “That was a really good win by this horse”, he said. “It was looking a little bit sticky prior to the corner…he was going to need luck.
“The gap opened up, and while the other horses had momentum he had the superior turn of foot and he was able to go through it”. Dwyer noted that while his runner won by under a length, he had the capacity to put a much bigger margin on the field. “At the 50-metre mark he looked like he was going to win by about 3 (lengths)”, he noted. “But he clocked off late and knew he had the race won and wanted to switch off. That’s very much this horse, he does what he has to. He’s better ridden quiet with something to chase”.
Harbourmaster will head to the paddock now for a short freshen up, before being aimed at some late-spring or early summer races. “He’s a nice progressive horse”, Dwyer said. “I’m very happy with him”.