Rich Enuff has had an outstanding season with his 3-year-olds, but his 2-year-old son, The Heir, stepped up to the plate at Bendigo on Thursday.
The strapping chestnut colt put his older rivals to the sword in the Avis Bendigo Maiden Plate (1000m).
Ridden by Fred Kersley for Lindsay Smith, The Heir credited Rich Enuff with his third 2-year-old winner from four starters this season when thumping the 4-year-old Per Incanto (USA) mare Per Sempre by four lengths with the 3-year-old Russian Revolution mare Queen Caves back in third.
It was the second start for The Heir, who went off a heavily backed favourite when second on debut over the same track and distance on June 15.
"I would be disappointed if he was in the country for long," Smith said.
"We may stop at Trevenson Park on the way home, where he can rest for a while.
"The sand work does him good because he is a big horse, and you don't want to pound them too much on the harder ground.
"He has been shin sore a couple of times, but we have not tipped him out.
"He’s a natural because I’m not gun on the 2-year-olds, and if he had not gone shin sore, he would have raced a lot earlier.
Fred Kersley said the son of Rich Enuff may have run into a smart one, Landmark, at his debut. Landmark then went to Caufield where he finished second to the highly-touted First Settler.
“He’s made good progress and might have been beaten by a sharp one on debut,” he said.
“I was happy to draw the outside gate. This bloke has a really nice cruising speed. He will extend out in time. We have not seen the best of him as he probably prefers being on top of the ground. There was more merit in that win than meets the eye.”
Bred and raced by Brad Spicer and partners, The Heir is the second winner from as many foals for the unraced Starspangledbanner mare We'll Never Know.
A half-sister to South African Group III winner Fish River (Canford Cliffs), We'll Never Know is a granddaughter of the multiple Group III winner Arrabeea (Zabeel), a half-sister to stakes-winner and Group 1 WRC Captain Cook Stakes winner Marie Claire.
We'll Never Know has a yearling colt by Toronado (IRE) and was covered by Grunt last spring.
