NINJA TAKES THE VO ROGUE FIELD APART, IN STUNNING FASHION, ON HIS WAY TO THE MM 3YO GUINEAS

By Graham Potter | Saturday, January 3, 2026

You can call him ‘The Mighty Ninja’ now.

The way the Michael Freedman trained Ninja demolished his opponents in the Group 3 Vo Rogue at Eagle Farm with a stunning display of acceleration that left them reeling and at the same time brought on a headache for the connections of the runners Ninja will face next in the $3 million Magic Millions Guineas at the Gold Coast on January 17, was the performance of the day, a fact emphasised by his 4.79 length winning margin.

And that was when the race didn’t go to plan.

It could have all gone horribly wrong before Ninja even left the barrier gates where he was very awkwardly away, coming out at the tail of the field, still looking to settle while the leaders were off and charging, leaving the daughter of Farnan running all of ten lengths off the action in third last place mid-race.

Tommy Berry’s ride was quite superb during this part of the race. Followers of the $2.30 favourite would have had their concerns, but Berry’s patience and his decision to just let Ninja lope along under no duress in the first half of the race, had everything to do with the way Ninja was about to let down on straightening.

Things had not improved much approaching the home turn, with Ninja still third last and swinging a full seven lengths wide at the point of the turn, but he had spent little energy up until then, and Berry, by putting him into clear air, had ensured that he would have a straight, uninterrupted run to the line where he could showcase his superior ability, if on song.

All it took was a flick of the wrists from Berry … and Ninja processed that message and followed that command so quickly, his rivals didn’t have time to see him coming.

From having eight lengths to make up on the turn to hitting the lead with 200m left to run, to coin a phrase, it looked like the others were standing still as Ninja reduced some well performed rivals to well beaten also-rans.

This was Ninja’s third win from only five starts.

Jockey Tommy Berry was as impressed as he was relieved.

“It shows you've always got to have a Plan B, but I didn't even think that was even Plan B for me," said Berry post-race.

"He was so well behaved for me. He stood in the gates beautiful and quiet, but when the starter called ‘all clear', usually the gates open not long after and so I've given him a bit of a squeeze to try and get him to jump but then there was a holdup.

“He's hit the front of the gates, taken a step back and then lunged out.

"We were hoping for an easy run today anyway with two weeks' time in mind. I wouldn't like to have been Michael (Freedman) after 150m, but he's a very good horse.

"I knew they'd gone hard and halfway through the race I thought … it's actually not bad that we did miss the kick and nice that he switched off the way that he did," continued Berry.

"He had his head on his chest a couple of times, and I had to give him a bit of a kick to make sure he grabbed the bridle for me at the right time.

"He's obviously never had to come off horses and go around them before, so he wanted to get away from them a little bit on the corner.

"But when they're quickening like that, geez it made my job very easy and I was able to be soft on him very late, which was good."

"To be fair, I actually have never sat on his back before. Andrew (Andrew Atkins) has done all the work and fortunately for me I got to reap the rewards, so all the credit goes to him."

“That was a super win. He did it very easy,” said stable representative Shelley Simmons.

“He is a very quirky. He’s got a bit of character about him, but he’s certainly become a favourite real quick. We all love him.

“He came out of that last run, where he was very unlucky, very well. We galloped him on Tuesday and he went enormous, so we were pretty confident. We had him at the beach yesterday and he loved it, so he is kind of enjoying Gold Coast life.”

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