Khalifa salutes at Sandown

Gentle giant Khalifa returned to the winners circle on Wednesday with a strong second up win at Sandown.

Sporting the silks of syndication outfit BC3, Khalifa travelled in third throughout before jockey Michael Rodd stoked up the big chestnut in the straight. He lumbered past leader Holy Heart at the 300 and pulled clear going away to record a soft two and a quarter length win.

Khalifa was a popular winner starting the $3.30 favourite extending his record to five wins, a second and a third from eight starts.

Khalifa was one of three winners for the week which began with the win of Oltre Finito on the Geelong Synthetic track on Sunday May 5. The win was the second consecutive for the son of Iffraaj who posted a dominant four and three quarter length win and returned to the mounting yard without incident or accident after dislodging jockey Steven King at his previous start.

Fastnet Rock filly Ocean Fleet opened her winning account on the Geelong Synthetic track on Friday May 10. A strong debut at Ballarat on April 21 saw her installed the $1.65 favourite and she did not disappoint registering a two and a quarter length win over Pressure Down and Later Baby. Ocean Fleet, who races in the Coolmore colours of stable mate Atlantic Jewel, will now be spelled with a view to a spring campaign.

Picture courtesy of Gary Wild/Slickpix