Highly promising Ex Sport Man gives Steve Wolfe his second Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic win

Albany trainer Steve Wolfe claimed his second Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic (1200m) with the highly promising Ex Sport Man on Saturday. It was an Albany quinella in the $250,000 feature race after Heavenly Waters ran second for trainer Roy Rogers. In the group of 12 owners in the victorious Ex Sport Man, eight of them also own a share in his star stablemate Red Can Man. The sublime win delivered jockey Shaun McGruddy a record fourth win in the race after partnering the Wolfe-trained Wolfe Dreams in 2009 to go with recent victories on The River (2016) and Lucy Mae (2017). A son of Playing God, Ex Sport Man was a $40,000 buy at last year’s Perth Magic Millions Perth sales and is now set to contest the Group 2 $500,000 Karrakatta Plate (1200m) on April 3. Ex Sport Man, a $6.50 chance on the tote, missed the jump slightly and settled near the rear in running before McGruddy peeled out wide turning for home. The gelding stormed down the outside and levelled up with Heavenly Waters with 50m to go before getting his head in front to win by a short neck. Wolfe said he has a big opinion of the horse. “He is a very nice horse, he will be better when he gets out over further,” he said. “He can certainly be a star of the future. “We had a bit of luck after missing the start but it was a really strong run. “At the 250m mark I turned to Tom my nephew and said, ‘he’s home’. “It might have been a bit cheeky because it took until the 50m to get the job done. “As soon as he got to the outside he was doing two to their one and you could tell that. “Roy’s horse put up a great fight but just wasn’t able to hang on.” Ex Sport Man has now won $194,600 in prize money, including bonuses, after three career starts. Wolfe said the Karrakatta will be the next goal and then possibly onto further black type races later in the year. “He might have one or two trials before the Karrakatta, maybe one, but if we get closer to the race and I feel we need a run I might look at something else but I don’t think so,” he said. “I think he will be a lovely sires and guineas horse.” Heavenly Waters, having her fourth career start, hit the lead at the 200m mark for jockey Lucy Warwick but wasn’t able to hold off her Albany counterpart. “It was a really good run, Lucy hopped off and said she probably went 50m too early and was quite angry with herself,” Rogers said. “We’re really happy with running second. “We said, ‘you had to get going when you did’ to her, we were stoked with the run.”