New headgear has Churchill finding his gears again
A blinkered Churchill (Smart Missile) regained his dynamic turn of foot to claim the S$70,000 Class 3 Division 2 race over 1200m on Polytrack yesterday.
Smothered up in fourth place for his charge to the post, Churchill, who was backed down to S$14 favouritism, gave his rivals little chance of a response once he was produced by first-time partner Ruan Maia at the top of the straight.
Among the leading bunch throughout, Super Invincible (I Am Invincible) still had a kick left in him into the straight, mounting a stiff resistance when Churchill came upsides, but the latter eventually gathered him in to assert his superiority with a smart length and a quarter win.
Mr Hooper (Sham Express) was produced late to finish third another half-length away. The winning time was 1min 10.55secs for the 1200m on Polytrack.
Churchill was bringing up his third win in eight starts, breaking a mini run of outs – two unplaced runs, including one in his target race, the Singapore Derby (Gr 1, 1800m) in September.
The five-year-old’s first two wins were recorded for Steve Levar and he has now saluted for his new owner Guy Shirtliff at only his second start for the South African, toting up close to S$125,000 in stakes earnings.
That figure gets a chance to swell further – as early as next Sunday in the S$250,000 EW Barker Trophy (Gr 2, 1400m).
“I’ve nominated him for the EW Barker Trophy next Sunday. We’ll see what he gets, but most importantly, we’ll see how he pulls up first,” said winning trainer Ricardo Le Grange.
“It was a great ride from Ruan Maia and the blinkers really helped him today.”
The win also rang up a training hat-trick for Le Grange who earlier scored with S$48 chance Stormy View (S$50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m) and S$16 shot Hotshots Slam (S$30,000 Class 5 race over 1200m), enabling the South African to leapfrog over trainers James Peters and Stephen Gray to sixth place on the log on 22 winners, before Gray got one back with Military Chairman (S$52) in the S$30,000 Class 5 Division 2 race over 1600m to reclaim his sixth spot.
A four-year-old, Hotshots Slam (Swiss Ace) was at his first outing for Le Grange on Saturday, having been unable to find the line in ten subsequent starts since scoring on debut for Shane Baertschiger last year in June.
As for Stormy View (Orpen), the Argentinian-bred four-year-old mare seems to have gained more confidence since opening her account two starts back with winning partner Krisna Thangamani again in the irons on Saturday.
She has now posted two wins and one second from ten starts for prizemoney around the S$55,000 mark for the Griffin Stable of Mr Rodney Too.
“Stormy View loves the give in the track. She is a full-sister to Storm Troops (Saas Fee Stakes winner with War Affair back in 2017) who also loved a wet track,” said Le Grange.
“She has really hit her straps, repaying the owners for their patience. Krisna is also riding with greater confidence now, he puts his horses in a better position now.
“As for Hotshots Slam, he arrived from Shane in great order. I played around with his gear, put a special pair of shoes on.
“Special mention to Noh as well. He’s been riding a lot of work for me in the last three months and his hard work is paying off.
“Noh has also given a lot of input in Hotshots Slam. He’s done a lot of work on him, and thoroughly deserves that win, just like the new owner, even if it’s just a Class 5 race.”
River Brilliance gets new Young-Ho partnership off the mark
River Brilliance (Real Saga) franked the promise shown at his debut with a gutsy second-up win on Saturday.
The three-year-old loomed as a big threat at his first start in a Restricted Maiden race over 1200m a month ago, but he could not quite overhaul Ablest Ascend (Charm Spirit) to settle for a close third.
Encouraged by that first run, trainer Young Keah Yong has since kept the Macau-owned galloper ticking over towards his next outing in this Saturday’s S$75,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1000m on Polytrack, duly picking up the reward despite a late riding change.
With jockey Chin Chee Seng unable to make the 50kgs his three-kilo claim allowed, Young handed the ride to apprentice jockey Iskandar Rosman, who did not let the golden opportunity go begging.
Settling Young’s horse in an ideal spot one-out one-back throughout, Lee Freedman’s Malaysian apprentice waited for the right moment to push the button at the 300m as race-leader and favourite Sahabat (Foxwedge) got collared by Real Efecto (Real Impact).
A three-way fight ensued, but it was River Brilliance ($19) who powered home a shade better, outsprinting Sahabat before fending off a stinging late challenge from Strong N Smart (Per Incanto) to prevail by a neck.
Presumably softened up a little by his early hard work to come across from a wide draw, Sahabat still fought on gamely for third place another half-length away. The winning time was 58.26 seconds for the 1000m speed dash.
“On his trials, we knew he had potential and he showed it at his first run,” said Young.
“We were expecting a good run today. It’s unfortunate for CS Chin, but Iskandar did a good job on the horse.
“Iskandar always listens to instructions, as he’s shown in the past when he won on My Dreamliner for us. I had faith in him and that’s why I had no hesitation in picking him.”
Young was also particularly pleased he had saddled his first winner for Mr Ho Pui Kim, especially after he recently inherited four other runners following the exit of the Macau businessman’s former principal trainer Mok Zhan Lun from Kranji, including top galloper River Radiance (Rip Van Winkle).
“River Brilliance was with me from Day 1, and now I have three other horses for Mr Ho,” said Young who also took over the training of River Roca (El Roca) and River Ruby (Salade), who have both already raced for him, albeit without flattering.
“It’s great River Brilliance has given us our first winner together, and hopefully, there’ll be more to come.
“I’m taking my time with River Radiance. There aren’t many races for him at the handicap, I’ll probably race him next year.
“I just got him at the stables, and for now, I’m just trying to get him fitter. There is no rush.”
A four-time winner by Rip Van Winkle (Galileo), River Radiance raced four times at Group level, mostly in sprinting events. While he had shown plenty of upsides in the lead-up, the runs had fallen short of expectations, with a fourth place to Nowyousee (O’Reilly) in the New Year Cup (Gr 3, 1200m) as his best showing in elite company.
He was tested over the mile in the Stewards’ Cup (Gr 2, 1600m) but he did not stay.
Magic Wand breaks long spell
Trainer Tan Kah Soon was thrilled no end after Magic Wand (Star Witness) returned to winning ways two days short of exactly two years on Saturday.
It was actually the first time the six-year-old was scoring under the former Godolphin assistant-trainer’s care as his previous four wins had come for trainers Bruce Marsh, Ricardo Le Grange and Lee Freedman, the latter being the one who prepared him to that last success in a Kranji Stakes C race over 1400m on November 9, 2018.
But with Tan having handled Magic Wand at half of his 22 starts now, he was entitled to feel like the Jeffrey Soh-owned chestnut had been part of the furniture for a long time.
The challenge for Team Tan had been to maintain Magic Wand’s level of fitness between runs given he’s an individual that you cannot knock too much work into.
After an encouraging comeback race when seventh to Rocket Star (Star Witness), but only just over three lengths astern, nine months after his last start, that challenge was successfully tackled when Magic Wand was able to extend his record to a fifth win in yesterday’s S$70,000 Class 3 Division 1 race over 1200m on Polytrack.
Taking advantage of a smart break from barrier 6, Magic Wand rolled forward to land outside the noted frontrunner of the race, Magnifique (Your Song), to remain scotched to that spot for most of the way.
Turning for home, Magic Wand was the first to pounce the moment Magnifique hoisted the white flag, and under Krisna Thangamani’s urgings, kept pulling plenty even if his strides did shorten up noticeably inside the last 50m, not to mention there were a couple of closers swooping down with their late big runs.
Begging for the line, Magic Wand was, however, able to scrape home by a head from Nationality (Commands) with Siam Warrior (Exceed And Excel) in third place another neck away.
The following figures are not any magic trick that his name might conjure, but they will knock readers off their socks nonetheless!
With all the buzz about the 11.11 crazy sale coming up on Wednesday, Magic Wand could not have made a better sale pitch. He ran the 1200m on the Polytrack in – hold on to your seat – 1min 11.11secs while returning a juicy dividend of S$111!
No-nonsense Tan had no time for such numerological happenstance, he was just happy his horse was in the number one winner’s stall, hoping more sticks will be added to the record.
“You could tell he was so good in himself today, just from the way he was behind the barriers as well,” said the Penang-born conditioner.
“He’s really come on from his last run. You can’t do too much with him between runs.
“He’s such a brave horse. (Trainer) Ricardo (Le Grange) told me he comes from a very good family related to a good horse he had, Bale Star.
“He’s got so much guts even though he was running on empty in the end.
“They didn’t go fast, and he ended up there, handy. He jumped well, Krisna got him out of the gates quickly, we thought they’d go quicker.
“That’s the way the race unfolded, and he ended up handy. At the top of the straight, there wasn’t much choice, he had to hit the front.
“I don’t think he went too soon, but of course if he had got beat, we would have said that! He was hanging on very well, Krisna gave him a very good ride.”
Tan added that the other factor that helped towards the return to winning ways was the weather.
“He’s always dry-coated, he doesn’t sweat, but the weather was cool today. That helped him a lot,” he said.
With that fifth win, Magic Wand has now amassed more than S$260,000 in stakes earnings for Soh’s Titanium Racing Stable.