By Sharon Zhang, Singapore Turf Club
From the three lightweight chances in the $100,000 Kranji Stakes A race over 1000m on Saturday, trainer Jerome Tan rates the in-form Sacred Gift as the best chance.
The six-year-old son of Zoustar flashed home for apprentice jockey Iskandar Rosman to beat the talented King Arthur in a Class 2 race over 1100m on March 5 when up in class to bring up his first win under his new handler.
Previously trained by Mark Walker, who has since returned to New Zealand, and owned by the Raffles Racing Stable, Sacred Gift has trained on and will carry a postage-stamp weight and will have the Malaysian apprentice jockey on board again.
“He has improved from his last run,” said the Singaporean trainer at the barrier trials on Tuesday morning.
“He’s also a horse that is better running off the speed.
“Barriers are not really an issue for my horses since most of them come from behind and there are only 10 runners in the field.
“We’re running against Class 1 horses when my horses are at Class 2 and 3 levels, so my biggest advantage here would be the light weights.
“Sacred Gift is the in-form horse and the fittest among my three horses. Celavi and Grand Koonta are the ones to beat in the race.
“So, with the light weight (50.5kgs) again this time, he is a good chance and Iskandar will ride him.”
His two other runners are newcomer Big Doctor and the resuming Sacred Rebel.
Named The Sinner when under Sunshine Coast-based trainer Natalie McCall, Big Doctor won five races (1000-1400m) in 22 starts, with his last win coming on November 8, 2020 in a Class 5 Plate* over six furlongs at Sunshine Coast, where he sailed down on the outside to score.
The five-year-old son of Better Than Ready was given a rating of 72 points when he landed in Singapore last November and was re-named with the prefix “big”, alongside three other horses (Big Tiger, Big Mary and Big Day) the Cat Racing Stable owns with Tan.
Two weeks ago, Big Doctor stepped out for his first trial under Tan’s trackrider Razif Rahman where he came from worse than midfield to run third behind the David Kok-trained Win Win, who crushed his rivals in a Class 4 race last Saturday.
Interestingly, current Kranji-based jockey Ronnie Stewart was in the irons at Big Doctor’s debut win in the Kincrome Qtis Two-Years-Old Maiden Plate at the Sunshine Coast three years ago, but this time, the newly-licenced jockey will instead be taking the reins on Tan’s third runner, Sacred Rebel.
“Jerlyn (Seow) is riding Big Doctor. He is on 49kgs and I cannot find anyone else that can make that weight,” said Tan, who was based in Penang for 10 years before relocating to Singapore three years ago.
“He won five times over the sprints when racing in Queensland and he came here about four months ago.
“His Malaysian owner (Albert Ow) has been with me since I was training in Malaysia, and he has three other horses with me now.
“I thought he was quite impressive at his first trial, taking into consideration he hasn’t raced for so long (since his last start-fourth at Sunshine Coast last July).
“He is an easy and straightforward horse to train as he is a very experienced horse with more than 20 starts in Australia.
“There will be a lot of speed and horses like Celavi to set a cracking pace to this 1000m sprint, so he will come from behind, just like how he raced overseas.
“I’m not sure about his Australian form but I think he’s probably a Class 3 horse at the moment.
“Let’s see how he runs first-up in a Kranji Stakes A before we plan anything for him.
“Sacred Rebel had a virus attack after his run in the Merlion Trophy, so we gave him a break.
“He’s all good now. All three of them worked with my track riders this morning.
“Ronnie will ride him this Saturday.”
The seven-year-old son of Sepoy will carry 52kgs at his first-up run in four months. The second runner from Raffles Racing Stable finished unplaced in the Group 3 Merlion Trophy (1200m) last November, running seventh to Celavi, whom he meets again on Saturday.
*Note: Under Australia’s racing handicap system, a Class 5 race is rated higher than a Class 4 race, a Class 4 race higher than a Class 3 race and so forth.
