By Sharon Zhang & Larry Foley, Singapore Turf Club
Lucky Jinsha showed that he was back to his best after he stormed home to post a brilliant win in the $100,000 Class 1 race (1100m) on Saturday.
Trained by Tim Fitzsimmons, the five-year-old son of Shooting To Win failed to score his sixth win in-a-row at his last start in a Kranji Stakes B race (1400m) on April 30, when he ran ninth to King’s Command.
The Lucky Unicorn Stable-owned gelding was found to be lame near-fore after the race and suffered from a stress fracture, which saw him being sidelined for a longer period of time, before he returned with two good barrier trial runs prior to Saturday’s race.
The plan was for Lucky Jinsha ($17) to lead upon breaking from barrier one, but Lim’s Dream (Krisna Thangamani) sprung out from the widest gate to cut across and showed the way, so jockey Zyrul Nor Azman opted for him to sit off the speed instead.
Once the field of nine turned for home, Zyrul upped the ante on Lucky Jinsha and the classy sprinter bounded away with a quick turn of foot, beating the valiant Sky Eye (Iskandar Rosman) to second by one-and-a-quarter length.
Sacred Gift (Shafrizal Saleh) came from behind to finish another two-and-a-quarter length in third, denying the resuming Muraahib (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) of a podium finish by a head.
The winning time was 1min 3.97secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
Fitzsimmons was relieved to see Lucky Jinsha overcome the odds to get his seventh career win after his last run nearly five months ago.
“He’s a difficult horse to train and has a lot of issues, but this horse is incredible and he’s my favourite horse,” said the leading Australian handler of his 49th winner this season.
“He had a stress fracture after his last run where he had to rest for three months.
“My farrier, Jessen (Dennison), has done a good job with his feet, and also the vets and the whole team.
“It was a bit of a rush to get him here today because there aren’t a lot of options for a horse like him now, but it’s massive to get the job done.
“I thought (a) 1200m (race) in a couple of weeks will be too soon for a horse who just came back from an injury, so there’s a Class 2 Polytrack race over 1100m in the first week of November (5th) and that will be his next start.”
As for replacement rider Zyrul who stood in for the unwell apprentice jockey Hakim Kamaruddin, Fitzsimmons sang praises for his ability to keep his composure despite not being able to lead.
“Zyrul didn’t panic when we couldn’t get to the leader early,” he said.
“He does a lot of trackwork for me, but we had Hakim on him (Lucky Jinsha) because he has won on him three times before and he knew the horse.
“I said to Zyrul ‘this is probably the fastest horse you’ve ridden, so enjoy it,’ and it was a great effort that he got the job done.”
The Singaporean jockey was seen grinning from ear to ear upon returning to scale. It has been a long time between drinks for Zyrul since his third and last winner, Rocketship, on February 13.
“Finally, a winner for me because it’s been seven months since my last win in February,” said Zyrul of his fourth winner.
“I only know this morning that I’m going to ride him and I thought ‘wow, that’s the fastest horse I’ve ridden in Singapore’.
“It’s great to see him (Lucky Jinsha) go up the grades and the credit goes to Tim.
“To be honest, I didn’t really want Lim’s Dream to lead, but we didn’t have enough speed to take him on, so rather than using him up too much, we took a sit.
“The instruction was to lead, but things don’t always go according to how you want them to. I’m happy that my pick-up ride won.”
With that seventh win and one second in 16 starts, Lucky Jinsha has amassed more than $220,000 in prizemoney for connections.
Entertainer returns to his best
Entertainer has not been at his best of late over his favourite surface, but he pulled out all stops to take out the $70,000 Class 3 sprint (1000m) on the Polytrack on Saturday.
The six-year-old son of Zoustar has not won since January but placed second at his last start on August 14, albeit over six furlongs on the turf.
Entertainer (Yusoff Fadzli, No 3) fights back on Darc Bounty (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin, obscured) to score.
This time, a positive ride by apprentice jockey Yusoff Fadzli from barrier five gave him every chance to get back into the winner’s circle but with Darc Bounty (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) on his tail, he had plenty of work to do.
Entertainer led and put a small gap in the field but with Darc Bounty kicking up on the rails, it was game on at the 200m.
In fact, Darc Bounty headed Entertainer ($38) at the 100m and looked the winner but under hard riding by Yusoff, the Donna Logan-trained gelding fought back in the shadows of the post to win by the smallest of margins, with Chicago Star (Benny Woodworth) half-a-length back in third.
The winning time was 58.92 secs for the 1000m on the Polytrack and Entertainer’s eighth career win took his total earnings to over $290,000.
Worthy mentions
Jockey Simon Kok Wei Hoong is riding in rare hot form. The affable hoop brought up a double on Saturday to back up a stellar month that included a hat-trick of wins on August 28 and his first four-timer last Saturday.
He first scored an easy win on Hurricane ($72) in the $20,000 Open Maiden race over 1000m (see previous report), followed by a nail-biting win on Augustano ($34) in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m.
Jockey A’isisuhairi Kasim, widely known as ‘Harry’, was the only other jockey to ride two winners with Amazing M ($57) in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1200m and outsider Ninesixthreethree ($106) in the $30,000 Class 5 Division 2 race over 1600m.
The former two-time Singapore champion apprentice jockey had a relatively quiet time in the saddle of late but the double moved him to seventh on the jockeys’ premiership with 18 wins for the season.
Three trainers managed doubles including Fitzsimmons and Logan, who are taking the 2022 trainers’ premiership to the wire.
Fitzsimmons – who currently leads with 49 wins, saddled Hurricane and Lucky Jinsha (see report above), while Logan (on 47 wins) led in Super Posh ($21) in the opener (a $30,000 Class 5 race over 1000m) and Entertainer.
Tan Kah Soon was the third trainer to pull off a brace with Amazing M, and then War Frontier ($22) in the $30,000 Class 5 race over 1200m.
Special tribute and ride of the day
The Saturday meeting began on a solemn note where a minute of silence was observed at the Kranji parade ring to pay tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, a well-known horse lover and prominent owner, who passed away at her home in Balmoral, Scotland on Thursday, September 8.
Jockeys stood in silence in the middle of the parade ring before Race 1 at around 11.35am as a mark of respect to the Queen, whose state funeral will be held at London’s Westminster Abbey on Monday at 10am GMT (6pm Singapore time).
On the topic of ‘best ride of the day’, racing presenter Scott Bailey, who had worked as a jockey, track rider and assistant-trainer previously, has seen plenty of racing and knows a good ride when he sees one.
While it did not happen in the Class 1 race, jockey Marc Lerner’s ride on War Frontier gets the gong for that.
“He didn’t panic,” said Bailey.
“He was happy to let the speed go from gate one and kept himself in a good position. He saved ground and the horse had the turn of foot to win.
“It may have looked easy but he could have gotten into trouble with traffic, so it was a textbook ride.”
