By Larry Foley, Singapore Turf Club
Trainer Tim Fitzsimmons racked up his 100th career win in his third year of training after Foxship took out the $20,000 Open Maiden race over 1100m on Sunday.
The Jig Racing/Elvin Stable-owned four-year-old was sent out as the $8 short-priced favourite on the back of two very good trials at Kranji. While the raced maiden from Australia got the job down on his Singapore debut, it was not without a battle.
After jumping a little tardily from barrier three, jockey Manoel Nunes settled him nicely in a one-back-one-out position but with a wall of horses in front, including third-favourite – Tributo ($28) who was four wide on the pace after jumping from gate no.12 for jockey Simon Kok Wei Hoong.
Nunes made the winning move at the 500m by taking a gap that had opened inside Tributo, and the pair settled down to a grand two-horse battle from the top of the straight.
Foxship – under hard riding from the bang-in-form Nunes – only won that battle in the last 75m but had to work hard again in the concluding stages to hold off the fast-finishing Star Legend (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) by half-a-length, while the gallant Tributo finished in third with the same margin.
The winning time was 1 min 6.4 secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
The affable Australian was very happy with the gutsy win but contemplative about the century milestone.
“I was completely unaware until one of the guys from the Club (Singapore Turf Club) said to me ‘you need one more’. I said ‘one more for what?’, to which he replied ‘100 winners’,” quipped Fitzsimmons.
“It’s been an amazing year and to do it with Nunes today is really rewarding. We make a great team. We work together so well. Vlad too, especially when Manoel was out.
“I have great owners and I’m just really happy. It’s probably been good for the last 18 months or so. It’s onwards and upwards as we have exciting horses and I can’t wait to build on what we have done so far.”
Foxship would certainly fit into that ‘exciting’ category as Fitzsimmons thought his maiden win was very good given the circumstances.
“Great result, even if not much went right there,” he explained after the race to racing presenter Raymond Yong.
“He was a bit slow away and hemmed in behind them. I was a bit worried at the furlong but he was really tough at the end when he kicked away. I think he will be a much better horse on the turf over further.
“He’s another really nice horse bought by (bloodstock agent) Josh McLoughlan (of Jig Bloodstock). We have a great bunch of owners – Vic and Craig Elvin – and a heap of other guys who are new owners, so it’s great for racing and for next year. It’s exciting.”
Nunes thought Foxship could improve again with race experience.
“He’s still a bit green and learning. He got a little bit lost when he got to the front and he didn’t know what to do,” explained the gun hoop.
“I think he will improve with more runs under his belt.
“I switched the whip to the left to keep him going because I had the other horse (Tributo) on my outside. When he (Foxship) hit the front, I had to switch to the right and ride to make him go.”
Earlier in the day, Den Of Thieves ($12) made it a perfect start to the meeting for both Nunes and Fitzsimmons with a solid win in the $30,000 Class 5 race over 1200m, before Raising Sixty-One ($13) doubled the dose in the $20,000 Maiden race over 1600m next.
Besides his three winners for Fitzsimmons, Nunes also steered the Alwin Tan-trained Cash Cove ($13) to victory in the $50,000 Class 4 race (1100m) and the Michael Clements-trained Qaidoom ($17) to take out the $30,000 Class 5 Division 1 race (1000m), bringing up his second five-timer of the year on Sunday.
Previously crowned champion jockey in Singapore from 2014 to 2016, he extends his big lead to sit on 77 wins on the jockeys’ premiership, incidentally landing his fourth Singapore champion jockey title since his return to Kranji in November last year.
With two meetings and 24 races left in the season, it is mathematically impossible for the second-placed Wong Chin Chuen (42 wins), who went home empty-handed, to turn the tables on Nunes with the 35-win difference.
Four-time Singapore champion jockey Vlad Duric, who booted home two winners in Sun Ace ($13) and Istataba ($17), has 32 wins to his name and sits in third.
