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After Japan celebrated a maiden UAE Derby winner with Yani and jockey Yutake Take, Buffering raised the Australia flag by winning the 1,000-metre sprint on the turf 35 minutes later at the Dubai World Cup meeting.
Damian Browne had Buffering traveling prominently with the leading group and then found an extra gear to forge clear and flash past the winning post first ahead of local star Ertijaal and Hong Kong’s Peniaphobia.
“He was in terrific form before the race,” Browne said. “He broke really well, to be honest beforehand I was more worried about the first 200m, thinking some of the others might have been a bit too quick for him.
“Once he was able to travel I was pretty confident we were going to win.”
It was the eight-year-old Mossman gelding’s 20th career win and have finished second or third 17 times in his 52 career starts.
“He got very upset in the gates, he can have his day in the gates,” Ertijaal jockey Paul Hanagan said. “The more upset he gets the more it can affect him. Having said that he had every chance and we can’t take anything away from the winner.”
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