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By Brad Gray

Lightly-raced gelding Galaxy Warrior kicks off his road to the Country Championships on Friday night at Canterbury.

There is a brilliant backstory to the five-year-old with the owners buying the horse “sight unseen” from an online bloodstock sale. Fast forward to now and he has won four of his eight starts and couldn’t have been any more impressive in a recent Rosehill trial win.

“I’m very happy with him. He’s heading towards The Championships in March at Wellington. The race (tonight) is naturally a bit short for him and they’ll go very quickly but I’m just hoping he doesn’t get back too far and he can finish off,” said Mudgee-based trainer Gayna Williams. “He is a horse that is better off with a bit of galloping room."

“After this start we’ll assess how he went, what the result is and how he pulled up as to where we go from there.”

He defeated Group-performed youngsters Tango Rain and Attention, and Bobby El-issa still had plenty up his sleeve.

Galaxy Warrior's Rosehill trial - Jan 17

“Bobby was very happy with him. Said he was cruising behind them and then he found the line really nicely. He’s a horse that can normally can take up a forward position but in my opinion when he gets up in harder company I’d prefer to see him take a sit. Not be so one dimensional.”

“I think Kerrin sat quiet on Tango Rain too. I’ve never been one to get too carried away with barrier trials because you don’t know what the rest of them are doing.”

“The owners bought him off the internet sight unseen and it’s a long story but they’ve been in racing for quite a few years and naturally he’s the best one they’ve had to date.”

“He had a few issues when we got him and he’s still not out of the woods but they did give him time which was great. They are very patient owners and it’s paying off for them.”

“He has a few unsoundness issues here and there. The breed, the Bon Hoffas, take a little bit of time too.”

The liberty was taken to set the seen for Williams – a horse bought off the internet by owners having seen nothing more than a photo is later crowned Country Champion.

“It would be a great story. It’s a hard race to win and even the heat will be difficult enough.”

Check out the fields and form at Randwick, Day 1 of the Chinese Festival of Racing