Perfect Scenario is set to return to Wingatui next month to try and retain his crown in the Gr.3 White Robe Lodge Weight-For-Age (1600m) following his win at the Dunedin track on Saturday.

Lumbered with a 62kg topweight impost, Perfect Scenario was given some weight relief courtesy of apprentice jockey Ngakau Hailey’s three-kilogram claim, which he appreciated in the concluding stages of the Meenans, Otago Tyres Barnyard Mainfeed’s (1400m) when storming home out wide to claim a one length victory.

It was a welcome return to form for the Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson-trained runner, who was having his first run back at the Otago venue since his Group Three triumph last February.

“It was another great win, he loves the South Island, and Hunter (Durrant, Riccarton stable foreman) is doing a fantastic job with the Te Akau horses stabled at Riccarton,” Walker said.

“It was really good to see him sprint like that to win and well ridden by young Ngakau Hailey (17), too.”

“He’ll go back to defend his crown in the White Robe Lodge, the Group Three weight-for-age, in three weeks’ time.

Perfect Scenario, who was purchased by Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis out of Woburn Farm’s 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft for $165,000, has now won eight of his 33 starts, including the White Robe Lodge, and placings in the Gr.2 Waikato Guineas (2000m) and Listed Timaru Stakes (1400m).

“He’s a really good horse, Perfect Scenario, from being stakes placed as three-year-old in the Waikato Guineas and still racing so well for his owners now as a six-year-old, it’s a real credit to the horse and those that look after him,” Ellis said.

“He won very well under a big weight fresh-up at Riccarton, and to me he looks in the right form to defend his White Robe Lodge title.”