The worry may have felt eternal to David Ferraris but his champion, Vengeance Of Rain, took less than a minute at Sha Tin yesterday to give the South African trainer all the reassurance he needed.
Vengeance Of Rain, handled by race rider Anthony Delpech, had his final piece of work for tomorrow's championship event, running 800 metres in 53.1 seconds, and zipping down the final 400 metres in 22.8 under a strong hold.
And for both trainer and jockey, who have now shared six Group One victories with the great stayer, the critical part came after the winning post because when Vengeance Of Rain is feeling really well, he's nearly impossible to pull up after a workout.
'It was a beautiful piece of work and he's 100 per cent, no question about it,' Ferraris said.
Ferraris has had weeks of concern as a number of horses in the yard have succumbed to the symptoms of equine Herpes virus (EHV) but the section of the stable where Vengeance Of Rain is housed has remained disease free and the gelding himself continues to look and work in prime order.
'A few horses in the stable have been under a cloud but they are downstairs in the yard and he's away from them on the upper level. But that piece of work told me that he's A1 and I'm very happy,' the trainer concluded.
