Despite Tomohawk’s encouraging and powerful win in the Simply Magic Cup co-feature on Friday (November 13), trainer Wayne DaCosta believes that his charge needs to improve a lot if he is to have success going up the ladder.

Travelling nine furlongs and 25 yards, Tomohawk was slowly out of the starting gates and was held by jockey Anthony Thomas among the backmarkers for most of the way as Ajita (Roger Hewitt), Primal Fear (Oshane Nugent) and Princess Lizzy (Dane Dawkins) set the path up front.

Down the backstretch, Tomohawk was still lingering with the backmarkers but began to gain ground three furlongs from home. Tomohawk got a clear run in deep stretch and powered home from rivals to win by 1 ½ lengths in a time of 1:56.0 for his second career success.

Let Him Fly (Dick Cardenas), who made a bold move down the backstretch, looked the likely winner at the top of the lane but was outbattled by the winner and had to settle for second place. High Diplomacy (Javaniel Patterson) was third.

“ Tomohawk has been a major disappointment from his two-year-old days. He finished a good second at two behind Wow Wow but has not gone on as expected as a three-year-old.

“He has promised much but has not delivered, so it is fitting that he wins a non-winners of two at this time before he gets into the four-year-old races.

“He [ Tomohawk] definitely has some ability but obviously he is not the same horse as he was last year. If you ask me if I am happy with the win? I am always happy with any victory but I don’t think the future is too bright for him,” DaCosta said.

The many-time champion conditioner then credited the jockey [Anthony Thomas] for a job well done aboard Tomohawk.

“I thought the jockey rode him beautifully, because he wasn’t smartly away. He was slow out of the gates and Thomas tucked him [ Tomohawk] in early and did not go wide, and when he asked him to run three furlongs out and he responded, he got an inside run. A little interference was there but he wasn’t to blame and he struck the front beautifully at the furlong pole and just basically plugged on for a fairly comfortable victory,” explained the record 18-time champion trainer.

DaCosta quickly added: “He won but it was an ordinary field and now he steps up from non-winners of two to Restricted Stakes and it’s a big step up, so I think he has to pay his dues before he can actually win one of those races. I will be running him pretty close, I won’t be waiting for three, four weeks, maybe two weeks, and he will be back on the programme.”