WARWOVEN'S WIN CEMENTS HIS PLACE AS THE MM 2YO CLASSIC FAVOURITE. IT WAS JUST TWO EASY.

By Graham Potter | Saturday, January 3, 2026

You will have to go a long way to see a win as easy as this.

The Bjorn Baker trained Warwoven’s win in QTIS Two-Year-Old Handicap over 1200m at Eagle Farm on January 3 in his second career start was delivered with the same authority with which the son of Sword Of State ticked off his debut win at Randwick over 1000m two weeks earlier.

Not quite a cakewalk … but pretty close to it.

Starting at the restrictive odds at $1.60 in the six horse field, the Baker trained colt jumped well enough with Rachel King then content to settle Warwoven in fourth place, then third place in the first half of the race, holding the rail position a little over two lengths off the leader, the $18 chance Bollente Bella, and just a length off Seductra ($91) who was tracking Bollente Bella in second place.

Tim Clark, riding the second favourite Lumbini who had been racing just back on the outside of Warwoven early on, tried to sneak closer, to not only improve the filly’s position, but also to prevent any possible move from Warwoven to shift out wider for a clear run in the approach to the home turn … but King did not even consider that option, instead maintaining that inside line before taking the split between Bollente Bella and Seductra which allowed Warwoven to surge into the lead with the minimum of fuss.

Warwoven then quickly dashed clear opening up a two then three length advantage, crossing the line with an official 3.32 length winning margin, this with Berry easing up on his mount over the final 50m.

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Lumbini, who had won The Debut at the Gold Coast over 1000m in his only previous start, chased Warwoven gamely the whole length of the straight without really having a prayer of reversing the result.

The Russian Revolution filly had to settle for second place, only narrowly ahead of the $51 bolter Leaves Of Lorien who ran on best of the rest.

“It’s always nice to win, but its not so much about today … it was just about having a good hit-out heading to the Magic Millions in two weeks,” said Baker post-race.

“He paraded beautifully. He was lovely and relaxed. If you didn’t like him pre-race, after his parade you would have had to.

‘I’ve been lucky enough to win the Magic Millions twice before. Both of those horses (Unencumbered in 2014 and O’Ole in 2024) had a great attitude and he has definitely got that. It just carries you so far.

“It’s pretty special. We’ve love to get there and just try and hold him together for another two weeks. It’s just a shame that Paradoxium couldn’t be there, but we’ve got Masvingo in the race as well.

“It’s very exciting.”

The win has cemented Warwoven’s place at the top of the betting boards for the $3 million Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic to be held at the Gold Coast on January 17.

Paradoxium, who won the Wyong Magic Millions Two-year-old Classic on December 10, after Baker had set the colt on a similar path to Unencumbered and O’Ole on the way to the Magic Millions raceday, suffered a setback after travelling to Queensland which brought a premature end to his Magic Millions campaign.

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