HnR-bred Appeared won for the second time in three weeks in Australia on September 2, stepping up 320 metres to 2200 metres and holding off Forbidden Riff by 0.31 lengths in the Catanach’s Jewellers Handicap at Warwick Farm. Sent out the $1.70 favourite under Dylan Gibbons for Bjorn Baker, he is now two from two since arriving from Ireland and three wins from five starts on two continents.
Seven went to post in the Benchmark 72 handicap for three-year-olds and up after Steel Blaze was scratched, on a Good 4 surface with the rail out three metres. Appeared carried the topweight of 59kg from barrier 6. County Kilkenny went forward and led, and Gibbons settled his horse fourth, one off the fence, in a race run at a tempo that never let anyone coast.
He improved to third by the 400 metres and came for Forbidden Riff, the Kerrin McEvoy mount, through the straight. The pair fought it out over the final furlong and Appeared got the head in front where it counted, stopping the clock in 2:14.27 with a closing 600 metres of 35.74. Spenzalot ran third at 2.51 lengths, County Kilkenny held fourth after making the running, and the margin back to fifth was more than seven lengths.
The winner’s share was A$28,400 of the A$60,000 purse.
“Obviously, he bounced well, allowed me to put him into a great spot, and I enjoy that he relaxes well. But I just don’t like that he doesn’t come onto the bridle when you need him to. Today down the side, I was really trying to make sure I had the revs up. Even then, the moment they went another gear, he just drops it.”
“The thing I like is, every time you really get after him, he gives you that good dash. I think he’s just a bit cheeky. I don’t know if he’s ever going to win a race by ten, but he knows he’s got a bit up his sleeve, and he just uses it when he wants. He keeps sticking his big head out when we need him to.”
Both wins have come the same way, and so has the same caution from the people closest to the horse. He is a European middle-distance horse being taught a different game, and the education is visible in the running.
“He had me worried there for a little bit in that run. And look, rightly so. He’s only a young, inexperienced horse that’s learning the Australian way of going, and I see it as a massive positive.”
“After the first win we had a number of owners calling out for metropolitan races and all sorts. And as you can see, this is why you’ve got to, like a tradesman or an apprentice, go up through the grades. He’s still got so much to learn, and I love what we’re seeing. It’s not the margin. It’s just the improvement you can see to come. He’s not straightforward. He’s hanging in here and there, and he’s just learning that Australian way of racing, which is so different from over in Europe.”
“We’ve got a very promising stayer, but we just need to keep a lid on it, go up through those grades, and he will repay us tenfold down the track. It’s not easy to go two for two.”
Baker had gone into the race with the same read. Coverage in the days beforehand, in the Sydney Morning Herald, framed the Warwick Farm assignment as a stepping stone and the horse as a stayer in the making rather than a finished article. The next step is expected to be another rise in trip, likely to 2400 metres, with Baker to decide the timing.
Appeared is a Kentucky-bred son of Justify out of HnR’s millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner Living The Life (IRE). HnR bred him and foaled him at Ashford Stud in Versailles. Coolmore bought him as a weanling at Fasig-Tipton November for $285,000 and offered him at Saratoga the following year, where Peter Brandt bought in at $600,000. He won a 2400-metre maiden at the Curragh last October for Aidan O’Brien, and Darby Racing acquired him for 120,000 guineas at Tattersalls in the autumn of 2025 with HnR coming back in as a part-owner.
His full sister is HnR-bred stakes winner Living Magic, a multiple stakes winner on dirt, all-weather and turf, who sells in foal to first-crop champion Citizen Bull at Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock Sale this fall. The Justify over Footstepsinthesand cross has now produced three foals of racing age, two starters and two winners, one of them black-type, and the brother has won at 2400 metres in Ireland and at 1880 and 2200 metres in Australia.
He is 3-0-1 from five starts. Bjorn Baker has not announced a next start.