Western Empire reigns supreme in Railway

[Wandering Eyes]

The combination of trainers Grant and Alana Williams, jockey William Pike and leviathan owners Bob and Sandra Peters were to the fore again in this year’s Gr.1 Railway Stakes (1600m) when Western Empire became the fourth successive winner of the famed Perth race for the unstoppable partnership.

The classy New Zealand bred four-year-old stalked the speed and enjoyed a trouble-free passage under Pike and blew his rivals away when asked for an effort, cruising to the line a four-length winner from Comfort Me, with Kissonallforcheeks third.

The arrogance of the victory over the capacity field justified Western Empire’s $1.60 starting quote, the shortest-priced favourite in Perth’s oldest Group One race with a rich history, dating back to 1887.

The son of Iffraaj has now won seven of his 12 career starts and could potentially take on weight-for-age company in the Gr.1 Kingston Town Stakes (1800m) in a fortnight’s time.

Western Empire has been the star of Western Australian racing since breaking maiden ranks at his fifth start, with that Bunbury maiden triumph followed by stakes wins in the Listed Lex Piper Stakes (1600m), Listed JC Roberts Stakes (1800m), Listed Melvista Stakes (2200m) and Gr.2 Western Australian Derby (2400m) as a three-year-old.

The gelding returned in auspicious fashion when winning the Gr.3 Asian Beau Stakes (1400m) late last month, and again put his rivals to the sword on Saturday when winning in a time of 1:34.38, within a second of Marwong’s 1988 race record.

The cerise and white silks of Peters Investments have previously saluted in the Railway with Old Comrade (2001), Elite Belle (2014), Galaxy Star (2018), Regal Power (2019) and Inspirational Girl (2020).

“It feels good. It is a very hard race to win, I have always said that,” a satisfied Bob Peters said. 

“It took us a long time to win our first one and a long time to win the second one, but we seem to have got the knack of it over the last couple of years, so it’s good.

“It is hard to tell how good he is. If he goes forward, he has got to meet the opposition at worse weights than what he did today, but he did it quite well.

“I had a talk to William before the race and we just decided it was best to try and not get caught up on the fence and be a bit closer and it all worked out very well. He got a good run through.”

Carrying just 53kgs and with the advantage of barrier 3, winning jockey William Pike was confident only bad luck could beat his charge.

“I knew I had the horse to get the job done and I thought if there was one weak link, it would be me,” Pike said.

“He’s a fantastic horse. I get great opportunities. The horse is in the zone and the stable is training so well, it’s a pleasure.”

The ace hoop said Western Empire had returned as a four-year-old with a better attitude than last season.

“He has always been pretty up and about, but he has come our way a bit. He has come to hand and he lets us apply himself better. Before he did it a little bit his way and at times it was scary, but now it is scary good,” he said.

Bred and raced by the Peters, Western Empire is by former Haunui Farm shuttle stallion Iffraaj and is out of Gr.2 Perth Cup (2400m) winner Western Jewel.

Iffraaj is now the sire of 11 individual Group One winners and will be represented by 21 yearlings at Karaka 2022.

The victory continued a good spring for New Zealand bred gallopers in Australia, where they have won eight of the 29 Group One races (27.5%) in the season to date, following on from last season where New Zealand bred horses won 24% of Group One races in Australia.

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