Anthony Nunes praised the tenacity and heart demonstrated by his five-year-old Curlin’s Affair, who secured a long-overdue victory on his seasonal bow.

The free-running chestnut horse showed he still retains plenty of ability at the right level, as the win in the three-year-old and upwards Overnight Allowance event over five-furlong (1,000m) straight at Caymanas Park on Saturday (January 7) represents his first listed success in almost six months, after a topsy-turvy 2022 season.

Since his last win at the same level on July 23 last year, Curlin’s Affair (Perfect Curlin —Nuclear Affair) had some stiff tasks against Open Allowance Company and will again have Duke, God of Love, and the likes to contend with for his next assignment.

“I wouldn’t say there has been much improvement, he is now five years old, so he is now fully matured. But he is a nice Overnight Allowance horse and if I could just try and get a little more out of him and with a little luck, hopefully, we can win a few more races with him,” Nunes said in a post-race interview.

“He is now back in the Open Allowance level where he also runs well, he had a second- and third-place finishes to Jordon’s Reign and Duke who are very nice horses, so let’s hope we can have some more success with him if we can get him to improve,” he added.

Having registered three wins and three second-place finishes, complemented by two third-place finishes from 17 starts last year, Curlin’s Affair returned focused for his first outing this season.

The 5-2 chance showed the best of his battling abilities when coming from off the pace under in-form jockey Tevin Foster to better Princessshootingstar (Oneil Mullings) and 3-5 favourite Make Up Artist (Robert Halledeen) by three-quarter lengths.

Running from the number seven draw in sloppy conditions, the Michros-owned Curlin’s Affair had to make up a lot of ground as the fleet-footed filly Princessshootingstar and Make Up Artist set blistering splits of 24.1 and 45.2 seconds.

In fact, it wasn’t until the last quarter that Curlin’s Affair came into contention, as he responded to every question asked by Foster and the left-hand stick to storm past the leaders. He stopped the clock in a decent 58.2 seconds which delighted Nunes.

“To be honest, he didn’t have much preparation coming in, he was handicapped to have a great chance and he did what we expected of him. He ran two races in the last month and he really didn’t get a fair shot, as he got hindered in both races and really didn’t get an opportunity to show his worth.

“To tell you the truth, I thought he would be favourite or second favourite but they kicked him out because like I said, he wasn’t up there in his last two races. It wasn’t any fault of his, he just got into trouble throughout those races, but he really dug deep on this occasion and showed that he has a brilliant heart,” Nunes noted.

“The track is fast because of all the rain but he is really an Overnight Allowance horse and if we can get him to improve a little bit then we will see what happens in Open Allowance,” he said.

Finally, the former three-time champion trainer to Jason DaCosta last year remains optimistic about reclaiming top honours this season, having already started the year on a high with two winners on consecutive racedays.

His other winner on the day was Manaco, also ridden by Foster, who finished two lengths ahead of a three-year-old and upwards optional claiming event over five and a half furlongs (1,100m).

“As usual we keep trying to win the championship, it is going to be very difficult, but we are always trying,” Nunes ended.