By Michael Lee, Singapore Turf Club
In-form Malaysian jockey Wong Chin Chuen claimed the riding honours at Kranji with a four-timer on Sunday.
The former two-time Singapore champion apprentice jockey got onto the scoresheet earlier in the day with the well-backed Dancing Tycoon (see earlier report) before waiting for the last three events to bag three more in quickfire succession.
Wong first saluted aboard the only longshot of a day dominated by favourites, $147 chance Global Kid for Michael Clements in the $50,000 Class 4 race (1600m) before going back-to-back with $16 favourite King Arthur for trainer Donna Logan in the $70,000 Class 3 race over 1200m.
As if the riding treble wasn’t enough, an insatiable Wong recombined with Logan to also snare the last race, the $50,000 Class 4 race (1200m) with Speedy Missile ($24).
Wong said he was just lucky he was handed the right tools to explain his prolific haul.
“I’m just lucky I was given very good rides today,” he said.
“Take King Arthur for example. He makes our job simple, he does whatever you want him to do.
“I didn’t want to cop too much kickback, so I made sure he was up there early. He’s a horse who shows his ability when he is comfortable during the race.
“He’s a proven horse when he leads, but from a wide draw, I was happy to just take a sit off the speed.”
Formerly prepared by Mark Walker, King Arthur (just like Speedy Missile), who was bidding for a four-in-a-row, emerged at the better end of a busy finish to incidentally lead a brilliant 1-2 finish for Logan and the Fortuna NZ Racing Stable.
Runner-up Hadeer (Jerlyn Seow Poh Hui) completed the quinella, with Logan quite certain that the order might well have been reversed had her two runners traded seats in the starting stalls.
Both Fortuna wards broke from awkward alleys with King Arthur in eight and Hadeer in 10 from 12, but Logan said luck in the running and a smart piece of riding from Wong swung it for King Arthur.
After a smart getaway as rain pelted down at Kranji, King Arthur pressed on to go and sit one-off outside race-leader Sacred Gift (Marc Lerner) while Hadeer found himself in the cheap seats, three wide without cover.
Upon cornering, the Savabeel six-year-old was still boxing on. King Arthur was one length clear in front, and arguably the beneficiary of a less sapping run in transit, but Hadeer kept chipping away at the lead to eventually finish within three-quarter length of his stablemate.
Another half-length away, a ding-dong battle for third place was claimed by Paletas (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin), a head from Leatherhead (Zyrul Nor Azman) and another short head from Songgong Hera (Shafrizal Saleh).
King Arthur ran the Polytrack 1200m in 1min 12.33secs and has now extended his record to five wins and five placings from 13 starts for stakes earnings in excess of $165,000 for the Fortuna NZ Racing Stable.
“Jimmy (Wong) told me he would sit behind the speed, and if you look how he’s been running that way in 1000m races, you’d be silly not to run him like that today,” said Logan whose training double took her to seven wins, tied with Michael Clements and Stephen Gray, but ahead in fourth place on a countback for seconds, only three wins behind current leader Daniel Meagher.
“Jimmy probably won the race when he decided to go forward and take a spot outside Sacred Gift.
“I definitely didn’t want my two horses to take each other on, but Hadeer was not as lucky. He was three wide, but full credit to him for still running on like he did.
“If they had swopped places, the order could have been different but it doesn’t really matter as they’re both Fortuna horses. The owner will still be happy.
“I have to say I was a bit worried when the rain came. I didn’t want either to end up on the fence, but it was an excellent result in the end.”
Logan said she had not mapped out any specific plan for King Arthur, just mindful about finding the right race for the I Am Invincible four-year-old.
“He’s a very good horse, but we’ll still take it step by step with him,” she said.
“We’ve done a bit of work with him, and we’ll just have to pick our way around and find the races available for him.”
