Cham­pi­on jock­ey Dil­lon Khelawan was over­joyed on Fri­day -In­di­an Ar­rival Day - when he pi­lot­ed the John O’Brien-trained Head­lin­er to a mag­nif­i­cent ten-and-a-half lengths vic­to­ry in The Guineas - over 1,800 me­tres on the main track at San­ta Rosa Park in Ari­ma.

The Di­ane Scott-owned three-year-old colt showed his true class by run­ning away with the fea­ture and in the first Jew­el of lo­cal rac­ing’s Triple Crown.

In his last race, Khelawan stat­ed that Head­lin­er took off at the first turn.

How­ev­er, when Guardian Me­dia spoke with the ju­bi­lant Khelawan, he said, “Head­lin­er broke alert­ly and I al­lowed him to go along. We were at the front of the sev­en-horse field with Supreme Leader try­ing to go with him. When we en­tered the back-straight, I al­lowed him to go a bit faster and he quick­ly opened a five-length lead on Supreme Leader.

“The race took an­oth­er turn when we were mid­way down the back-straight as he want­ed to go even faster. Go­ing down the back-straight he was trav­el­ling so well and go­ing about his busi­ness as if it was a one-horse race. Go­ing to the far turn, he was still some ten lengths clear and go­ing ex­treme­ly well. I thought that com­ing to the cor­ner I should ex­pect some chal­lenges but that did not hap­pen and Head­lin­er just kept up the gal­lop all the way up the straight. That is how classy he is.

Clear­ly, the John O’Brien-trained colt was back as though de­feat was out of the ques­tion at 1-9 and out­classed his field with an­oth­er pil­lar to post suc­cess.

It was on­ly two years ago, that his full sis­ter, In The Head­lines, won the Triple Crown and he is firm­ly in line to fol­low suit and give own­er Di­ane Scott her first suc­cess as an own­er with Head­lin­er.

Head­lin­er al­so land­ed his sixth ca­reer suc­cess when he raced home alone and looked every inch a Triple Crown cham­pi­on.

Khelawan had a great In­di­an Ar­rival Day of rac­ing when land­ing four win­ners on the six-race card for John O’Brien.

The win­ning jock­ey said in clos­ing, “I think he is the best three-year-old in train­ing and I am look­ing for­ward to rid­ing him in the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic and the Der­by, the oth­er races of the Triple Crown. He is in­deed a very good horse who will take a world of catch­ing in the next four months. He is ex­cep­tion­al.”