Much was expected from Western Warrior earlier in the season, but this bay colt — a late bloomer — seems just about ready to realise his true potential.

Western Warrior finished second to Fearless Samurai in the seven-furlong (1,400m) Prince Consort Stakes — Guineas Trial — in March, and was expected to figure in the one-mile (1,600m) 2,000 Guineas in April; however, all he could manage was sixth place after a reasonably good run.

He was second to last in the 10-furlong (2,000m) Lotto Classic for the Governor’s Cup, and simply faded in the remaining Classic races (Derby and St Leger).

Since then the Fitznahum Williams-conditioned Western Warrior has been slowly getting his act together with one win, four second-place finishes and one third from six starts prior to last Saturday.

In his last three races, Western Warrior finished a close second behind Lucky Stroke on August 7, trailed Bilingual on September 30, and almost caught stable companion Kalamata on October 21.

Then came Saturday and the running of the United Racehorse Trainers’ Association of Jamaica Trophy feature. In the nine-furlong and 25-yard (1,820m) trip, Western Warrior led every step of the way to take the Restricted Stakes race by a hard-fought length.

Dontae (Dick Cardenas) sat off the pace and tried with every stride in the lane but couldn’t peg back the winner and had to settle for second money. Follow Back A Me (Shane Ellis) was asked to test Western Warrior on the lead and surged as the field entered the straight, but she had nothing left and weakened into third place.

The time done by the Western Classic offspring was an impressive 1:55.1 with splits of 26.1, 50.1, 1;14.4 and 1:41.1.

“It was a good performance. Western Warrior ran a very good race to win here today, and it showed his consistency. He has improved a lot and he has shown that he is developing into a nice middle-distance sprinter,” was Williams’ assessment.

Jockey Wesley Henry, who was aboard Western Warrior, was most impressed by the win.

“This horse [ Western Warrior] has the class of this race. He just got beaten by stablemate Kalamata the last time and I really wanted to ride him again. The [connections] gave me the opportunity and we got the job done.

“I just told myself that he likes to run from in front and so the plan was to break him sharp, keep him together and make him relax as much as possible, and ask him to run in the last part of the race.

“He is a nice horse and he is just getting himself together now. He ran fairly well in the early part of the year and seems now to be on the improve. I rode him in the Guineas Trial [Prince Consort Stakes] and the 2000 Guineas and he ran well, but in the other race, the Lotto Classic, something went wrong with him, and after that he is just getting back to himself,” Henry said.