Ben Pearce prepared Roman Fighter for a maiden plate at Bunbury, in race 3 over 1208 m with replacement jockey Paul Harvey taking over the ride after Alan Kennedy had a trackwork mishap the morning of this event, with Harvey jumping the 3-year-old from barrier five in a field of 12.
As the gates flew back Roman Fighter was slow to respond, Catalini Secret was the fastest into stride with Tintilly second Corn Flakes was third Joyful Hope was fourth as Harvey from the skinny gate punched through to sit worse than midfield but improving after landing.
Around the side in the Diageo Maiden Plate it was still Catalini Secret the front runner, first up from a spell with Lucy Warwick looking to steal a win, Tintilly was still thereabouts as was Joyful Hope, & Corn Flakes, with Harvey getting all the favours underneath runners as if one of the fence appeared to be unfavourable to the rest of the pack.
Into the straight the Secret was out and the Pontiff was gone, racing to the lead with the runner that has not had a lot of luck this time in, "As the fighter", Roman Fighter balanced up and shot well clear to land the maiden voyage by at least 3 on the line to Joyful Hope in second and Tintilly in third with a margin back to In The Terrace in fourth.
Ben Pearce commented "the horse has shown some promising signs and after a couple of runs where excuses could have been made, it was nice to see him aim up when the opportunity arose" Congratulations to the owners consisting of Mr B M Pearce, Mr T D Forrest, Mr R G Sayers