Vincero Cavallo confirmed his status as the fastest horse in Korea as he comfortably won the SBS Sports Sprint (1200M KOR-G3) for the second year running at Seoul Racecourse on Sunday afternoon. In doing so, he claimed his second consecutive Sprint Series victory with one leg to spare.

With the field having been reduced to fifteen after the scratching of Yeonggwangui World, VINCERO CAVALLO started as favourite but not as short as some might have expected, given how well he won the first leg of the series, the Busan Ilbo, on the south coast last month.

Part of punters’ reticence may have been the wider draw for Vincero Cavallo and also perhaps that jockey Jo Jae-ro had been heavily unseated from his mount in race 5 and had a nervous wait before being passed fit to partner his career-defining horse.

Once the gates opened, all doubts disappeared. As expected, Born Dia showed the way early Vincero Cavallo began well too, Jo Jae-ro settling him in the front of midfield. Once he made his move in the home straight, the race was won with his now customary turn of foot proving far too much for his rivals. 38/1 chance Wonderful Groom was 2^nd and 15/1 Haksan Speed 3^rd.

“This was the first time we drawn this wide in the Sprint Series, so my thought was let’s just focus on the start and do well.” Jo Jae-ro told KRBC. “I trusted the horse and once we were away, I thought winning was inevitable and the race unfolded very comfortably.”

“(Vincero Cavallo) had a hard time at the end of last year but even though the results in the races weren’t good, we were learning from him all the time and now he is back on top, we can learn even more. I know me, the trainer and all the staff are thinking about how he ran in the Korea Sprint last year and how we can use these wins as a stepping stone to doing better this time.”

Trainer Seo In-seok also talked about the Korea Sprint. “I think about the Korea Sprint a lot. I think we perhaps overtrained last year so this year we’re focusing just in the horse’s condition. He’s already won this series, but we go to the (SROA Chairman’s Sprint) to try to complete the sweep and then we will try to win the Korea Sprint.”

The win was the fifth at Group level for the five-year-old Vincero Cavallo (KOR) [Cowboy Cal – City Lass (by City Zip)] and twelfth in total from twenty-five starts. All have come in the Sprint Series, which he swept last year and is now two-thirds of the way through a repeat.

The Sprint Series concludes back at Seoul in May 17^th with the SROA Chairman’s Sprint (1200M KOR-G3).

Next week focus switches to the Stayer Series and while Herald Business winner Clean One is being kept at home with workload management in mind ahead of planned tilts at the Korea Cup and a defence of the Grand Prix, there will be plenty of intrigue in the YTN Cup (2000M KOR-G3). Speed Young, Success Baekpa, Global Hit and Gangpungma are all expected to be present as is exciting three-year-old Geudaemaniddamyeon.