Racing: Sir Slick races up to gallant best

Have we ever seen a more gallant racehorse than Sir Slick? If we have, no one can come up with a name.

The performance Sir Slick put in to finish second to My Aston in Saturday's $150,000 Japan/NZ International deserved to be the winning one and the fact he finished second in no way detracts from the effort.

You simply don't see horses try as hard as Sir Slick.

Forget for a moment that My Astron won the race. The real interest was in the fight between Sir Slick and third-placed Occidentalis.

It was a classic.

Occidentalis put pressure on Sir Slick as early as coming up to the home turn.

Remember Sir Slick was carrying 59kg, 8kg more than Occidentalis, who is a giant and would have though his 51kg was even lighter.

Occidentalis, at the height of his form now, edged past Sir Slick by half a length, but was worn back down again and finished a short neck behind him.

"What a heart that horse's got," said Occidentalis' rider James McDonald.

No one argued.