By Sharon Zhang, Singapore Turf Club
Blazing Kid overcame waywardness to easily secure his first win in the $20,000 Open Maiden race over 1200m on Saturday.
Prior to the start, the field of 12 saw some newcomers getting restless, which included the Jason Lim-trained Kranji Jewel who played up and threw off apprentice jockey Yusoff Fadzli. He was scratched eventually.
Blazing Kid lost his right-hind shoe behind the gates amid the chaos, but the Singapore Turf Club farriers fixed the issue in no time. Jockey Oscar Chavez made sure he calmed the four-year-old son of Swiss Ace down upon loading.
Not long after jumping, the $8 favourite had to jostle for the lead with Raging Brave (Akmazani Mazuki) and Battle Win (Krisna Thangamani), before he could have his way near the 900m.
From then on, Chavez had the race all sewn up. Despite racing greenly, the New Zealand-bred brown gelding still bounded away under a few reminders from the Panamanian-born jockey to score an easy win, two-and-a-quarter lengths ahead of Melody Fair (A’Isisuhairi Kasim).
The Leslie Khoo-trained gelding could not break the duck for his local trainer, but he managed to stave off the fast-finishing Shang Chi (Matthew Kellady) by a nose.
The winning time was 1min 11.57 secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
With Blazing Kid having already placed second twice from two starts, winning trainer Jason Ong thought going one better was not beyond his reach this time.
“I was happy with him coming into the race, so I expected him to run a good race,” said the young Singaporean trainer, who was leading in his ninth winner of 2022.
“He was coming along very well after two seconds and was also getting stronger in terms of physique.
“There were a few horses playing up behind the gates, which probably affected him. Credit to the club farrier who helped replace his shoe before the start.
“He still has a few things to learn and there are a lot of upsides with him. He is a nice horse going forward.
“The owner (Blazing Kid Stable) bought him in a trial in New Zealand. He has been patient with the horse.
“Oscar delivered the job well too.”
Chavez said Blazing Kid was still green but he did see the underlying potential in going up to the mile in future.
“The plan was to go in front, but my horse was very green,” said the naturalised Singaporean.
“But it was an easy win for him, and he can go up to the 1600m, no problem.
“Lucky I held on to him (after shoeing), if not, he might have been scratched (laughs)!”
The 47-year-old hoop went on to score a hat-trick of wins to take his season tally to 15 winners. He won aboard the Steven Burridge-trained Ima ($31) in the $30,000 Class 5 Division race 1 over 1600m two races later, before combining with Ong again to take out the $30,000 Class 5 Division 2 race over 1400m four races later on board Smoke And Mirrors ($28).
With that first win and his two seconds, Blazing Kid has earned over $18,000 in prizemoney for local connections.
