Tiger Roar gives Munger more hay to make
Top fancy Tiger Roar (Wandjina) handed Ryan Munger another winner yesterday, but there are only four meetings left in the Singapore season for the South African jockey to pad up his current score of 16 winners.
Munger is the only expatriate jockey from the pool who remained at Kranji in this post-Circuit Breaker phase of the 2020 season to not have asked to be renewed next year.
All the other six namely Vlad Duric, Ruan Maia, Louis-Philippe Beuzelin, Marc Lerner, John Powell and fellow South African Juan Paul van der Merwe have been granted a one-year extension on application.
When the pandemic brought Singapore racing to a screeching halt in April, four foreign jockeys cut short their stay, Daniel Moor, Michael Rodd, Alysha Collett and Patrick Moloney, and headed to Australia.
Munger, who began his stint in January, was among those who stuck it out when racing went into hibernation for three months from April to July.
As much as he does not regret his move and wished he could stick around for another season, any longer stay would hurt his pocket even further.
“It’s been one of these decisions that gave me many sleepless nights as I’ve really enjoyed my time here,” he said after his victory.
“But it’s been a bit hard when meetings were dropped from two a week to one while the cost of living has remained the same, i.e. very expensive.
“These are really uncertain times and it could become a huge problem. So, I’ve decided to go back to my base in Johannesburg.
“My agent has already spoken to some trainers and the good thing about South Africa is I don’t have to do any quarantine, just a 72-hour Covid-19 test and if I’m negative, I’m good to go.
“In saying this, I hope when the whole Covid-19 situation has calmed down, I would like to ride overseas again, and Singapore would definitely be a place I would consider as long as it’s two race meetings a week again.”
The 25-year-old, who was crowned Zimbabwe champion apprentice in 2018, is leaving with the proud knowledge he has done his best, even if he did not garner the best rides.
Munger may not get the pick of the rides, let alone in feature races, but he amazingly finished second in all three Legs of the prestigious Singapore Triple Crown series. Nobody remembers second places in big races, but Munger still feels a slight twinge at the thought.
“It’s a bittersweet pill but if you had told me when I just got here I would be riding in the Group 1 races here, I would tell you I had no hope at all.
“I have to thank all the trainers and owners who supported me, especially Ricardo Le Grange who helped me find my feet at the beginning.
“I’ve done very well here and I’m leaving with my head held high. I really like the place and met great people here.”
Munger is hoping to see out the remaining month of his term, but it will all depend on his air ticket and wife Kelsey’s booking.
“My booking has been changed around a few times. I’m hoping to ride till the last meeting (December 27),” he said.
“But I’m definitely riding at the Colonial Chief Stakes meeting (December 19).”
On Tiger Roar’s nose win in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1800 metres, Munger said the colt again showed a tendency of stopping when he should be putting the race to bed.
“I didn’t want to smack him, I thought I could ride him all hands, but like he did at his last races, he was looking for company,” said Munger.
“I gave him a few smacks and that’s when he ran past the other horse.”
While Tiger Roar only got one nose past, winning trainer Michael Clements didn’t think it was a laborious win per se.
“It looked like he made hard work of it, but I’m still very happy with the win. He’s only a three-year-old, and he did well at the middle of the handicap,” said Clements.
“The Long Course suited him as well as he had more time to wind up. Ryan gets on well with him as he’s won on him before, and he rode him well again.”
Chocante (Fastnet Rock) bounced back to winning ways in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1100 metres under a determined Duric ride.
“He won five starts ago with Vlad in a 1200-metre race. I thought 1100 metres would be too short, but he was wearing blinkers for the first time since his first start,” winning trainer Shane Baertschiger said.
“I just told Vlad to ride him where he was happy and he rode him a treat, but to me, the horse is more of a 1200-metre horse.”
“We had a good run throughout and he is back to his best form,” Duric summed up. “Everything went right for him and we got there right in time.”
Chocante was the second of three winners on the card for Duric who had taken the opener aboard Tigarous (Dragon Pulse) before going on to land win number 63 for the season on favourite Marikh (Smart Missile).