By Sharon Zhang, Singapore Turf Club
Luxury Brand outsprinted favourite Petrograd to get on the board at his fourth start in Singapore.
The Donna Logan-trained Emergency Acceptor gained a berth in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race (1200m) after Super Convince was scratched.
With two seconds and a fourth at his previous three starts, the three-year-old son of Charm Spirit had more experience than all other 11 rivals on the field, including the $8 favourite Petrograd, who was second-up after running second on debut on August 28.
The first 400m of the race saw Petrograd (Vlad Duric) and Luxury Brand (Yusoff Fadzli) vying for the lead, before Yusoff decided to sit off the pace on the rails.
Turning for home, Yusoff called upon a response from Luxury Brand ($27) and he pulled away from Petrograd with relative ease, winning by two lengths at the post.
After jumping from the outside gate and getting trapped wide, debutant January (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) made up plenty of ground late to run another one-and-a-quarter length away, just pipping another newcomer Bestseller (Wong Chin Chuen) by a nose into fourth.
The winning time was 1min 10.04secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
Logan was happy with her first winner for the Bax Racing syndicate led by her good friend Kylie Bax and cannot wait for their next horse to arrive in Singapore.
“I’m proud to get a winner for Kylie here, who has been a good client of mine in New Zealand,” said the New Zealand handler for Bax, an ex-New Zealand supermodel who is better known as the breeder of the great Better Than Ever.
“He (Luxury Brand) has been an ultra-consistent horse. We freshened him up for the run today and he reaped the rewards for us.
“We were always going to be forward, but I thought Duric (Petrograd) would lead and told Yusoff to ride him where he’s comfortable. We didn’t plan on leading, just to sit behind.
“Yusoff said he travelled easily underneath him, so he let Duric cross him because he had enough on hand to keep going strong in the straight.
“Yusoff held his ground and he (Luxury Brand) kicked beautifully.
“Kylie is putting up a second syndicate together to send over a new horse by Merchant Navy for us. They’re still left with 25% of the shares to sell and he will be up here when things are ready.”
Logan, who knocked in a treble with Winning Stride ($17) in the $20,000 Open Maiden race (1200m) and Super Impact ($15) in the $70,000 Class 3 race (1600m) later, was rather impressed with her second runner, January, too.
“I was also very taken with January’s run,” she said.
“We bought him for Falcon Racing (No 7 Stable) at the (New Zealand Bloodstock) Ready To Run Sale last year for NZ$75,000 and he’s always shown me a lot.
“He ran out of his skin at his first start and is another exciting horse coming through.”
Apprentice jockey Yusoff Fadzli is now leading on 18 winners on the apprentice jockeys’ log, five clear of the second-placed Jerlyn Seow.
He thought that Luxury Brand’s race experiences helped in notching up his first win.
“He’s got more experience than other horses,” said the Malaysian apprentice jockey indentured to Logan.
“From that gate (seven), I put him up there and let Duric go a bit further for me, before I picked him up slowly at the top of the straight.
“I hope to keep my spot (on the apprentice jockeys’ premiership). I’ll try my best.”
With his first win and two placings in four starts, Luxury Brand has earned over $70,000 in prizemoney for connections.
