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Talented Irish three-year-old Nova Vocal exploded away to a resounding win that spoke volumes about his untapped potential on Sunday.

Trainer James Peters had always held the Vocalised three-year-old in high regard from the day he trounced his Restricted Maiden rivals first-up back in April.

At some stage, he was even regarded as a wildcard who could upstage his peers in the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge, but he unfortunately put in a howler in the last Leg, the Group 1 Singapore Guineas.

After that letdown, he was backed off, came back four months later with a nice warm-up first-up – third to Nowyousee – but again misfired at his next start.

But Peters knew he had excuses – he was slow out of the machines and got further back than he would have liked - regrouped him, and had every reason to be hopeful for the true colours to come through in Sunday’s $80,000 Class 3 Division 1 race over 1100m following a scintillating barrier trial win on October 25.

Nova Vocal (Olivier Placais) indeed reproduced the same brilliance one week later, mustering early speed from his wide alley to lead the way, before skipping clear at the top of the straight to show his rivals a clean set of heels.

Favourite Nationality (Craig Grylls) was all but gone when he blew the start. He tried to recover the lost ground by improving quickly through the field, but the premature exertions told inside the last 300m as he battled on in ninth spot, more than 10 lengths off Nova Vocal.

Taro San (Yusoff Fadzli), a last-start winner in Class 4 company who was rising in grade, toughed it out for a performance full of merit in second place, four and a half lengths away with Red Dawn (Matthew Kellady) third another three-quarter length away. The winning time was 1min 4.52secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.

“He was very impressive today. I have a lot of time for this horse,” said Peters.

“He was very raw and green when he first came to me. He has been putting things together and was winning on pure ability.

“After the Guineas, he ran well behind Nowyousee, but his next race was a disaster. He was slow out of the gates and got shuffled back.

“We put a line through this run and gave him a freshen-up. He trialled enormous the other day, and I was quite confident he would run well today.

“I think he’s a horse who can come back underneath and relax. I thought he switched off well today once Oli had him in front.

“But for now, I’ll still keep him to these 1100m races and he seems to like the Polytrack as well.”

Placais said it was not in the script to take up the running, but he needed no second invitation when nobody volunteered for the role.

“Actually, it wasn’t the plan to go forward. I thought Craig’s horse (Nationality) would do that,” said the French jockey.

“I wanted to just sit off the pace with cover, but he jumped so well and as no-one on the inside wanted to go, I went in front.

“He’s won like that before and I was quite happy to go forward. At the top of the straight, I just wanted to keep him focused without pushing him too early.

“He finished off very fast. I could have been a lot softer with him in the straight, but a winner is a winner; he will have plenty of time to recover.”

With that third win from seven starts, Nova Vocal has now amassed in excess of $140,000 in prizemoney for the Nova Racing Stable.