The plan may have been put in place by trainer Tim Fitzsimmons weeks ago, but it was a ten-out-of-ten ride by visiting jockey Chad Schofield that saw Golden Monkey take out the $150,000 Group 2 Stewards’ Cup (1600m) on Sunday.
After running second to the Jason Lim-trained Super Salute at his last two starts over 1400m in the Group 2 EW Barker Trophy on April 13 and the Group 3 Silver Bowl on June 11 respectively, Fitzsimmons decided to remove the blinkers from the son of Star Turn as he stepped up to the mile for the first time in the second Leg of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge.
After drawing wide in barrier nine, connections also planned for him to be ridden quieter than usual to make up the few lengths needed to turn the tables on jockey Manoel Nunes and Super Salute.
Plans hatched over a coffee or dinner are easy to make, but when push comes to shove, it was up to Schofield who had the tough job on the day at his fourth ride at Kranji.
Upon jumping, Flaming Migliore (Krisna Thangamani) bolted from barrier 10 to lead early and Super Salute also raced handy from the wide gate eight. But Schofield stuck to his guns – and the plans – and settled Golden Monkey ($32) in second last with cover.
Things got interesting at the 1000m with $6 favourite Super Salute overly keen to head Flaming Migliore, before being restrained by Nunes while jockey Louis-Philippe Beuzelin made a mid-race push on Montana Flash back in the field.
Schofield – a multi-Group 1 winning jockey in both Australia and Hong Kong – did not hesitate to follow Beuzelin and Montana Flash at the bend and was handy enough on straightening, all while keeping Super Salute in his sights.
With the leader stopping quickly, Super Salute hit the front at the 350m but was challenged almost immediately by Montana Flash. But with Schofield only getting busy at the 300m – and with both the sit on the favourite and the momentum in his favour – Golden Monkey had them all covered at the 250m.
The last furlong was indeed an easy watch for those with Golden Monkey’s winning tickets in their hands. Schofield knocked in his first win in Singapore by two lengths over a gamed Super Salute while Invincible Tycoon (Benny Woodworth) another half-a-length back in third.
With one eye on the third Leg of the 4YO series, the Group 1 Singapore Derby (1800m) on July 23, Dream Alliance (Daniel Moor) ran home nicely to finish another nose away in fourth.
The winning time was 1 min 34.38secs for the 1600m on the Short Course.
Schofield was thrilled with how the race tactics panned out.
“It is a big thrill and lovely to get the call up,” said Schofield, whose father Glyn won the Group 1 Singapore Airlines Cup (2000m) on Gitano Hernando in 2011.
“Although I’ve done a lot of riding in Asia, I’ve never ridden in Singapore. It’s my first meeting today and it was nice to get the opportunity to ride a horse like Golden Monkey. He’s got a lot of quality and we saw that today.
“He got a little bit further back than anticipated but we knew he had the best turn of foot in the race. We (also) knew it (the turn of foot) was quite shorts, so the only thing we were concerned about was the mile.
“Obviously the first port of call was to get him to relax and he did that really nicely. No one wanted to go early and then the race sort of heated up around the turn. I was able to pop into the three-wide line and flow nicely.
“I stayed there for as long as I could and when I pressed the ‘go’ button, he (Golden Monkey) showed that good turn of foot.”
When asked about the 1800m trip of the Singapore Derby, Schofield sounded confident, but not without some reservations.
“Look, it’s a completely different type of race – the mile to the 1800m,” the Sydney-based hoop explained.
“But one thing that will help him is that he relaxes. He completely spits the bit out and goes to sleep in the run. And against his own age group, he’s probably better than them, so I think that will take him a long way.”
Fitzsimmons was full of praise for Golden Monkey – the horse that gave him his first Group win as a trainer in the Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint in June last year – when things did not go his way early on Sunday.
“They didn’t go fast enough early but then they started to roll in the middle of the race,” said the 2022 Singapore champion trainer with his back-to-back wins in the Stewards’ Cup after Relentless took out the same feature race last year.
“And he put them away. It’s very exciting.”
And like Schofield, Fitzsimmons thought that the Singapore Derby is there to be won.
“I think we (can) do exactly what we did today, to ride him quiet,” he continued.
“If he hadn’t run the trip today, we would have headed to the (Group 3) Rocket Man Sprint (1200m) but now the (Singapore) Derby (dream) is ‘alive’ and it’s really exciting.
“This horse is an amazing horse for me. He never runs a bad race. We also have a great bunch of owners (Jig Racing/Elvin Stable) and that’s what it’s all about.
“Thanks to Chad for coming up and riding perfectly to instructions and I also have to thank Daniel for helping me out with Golden Monkey.
“He (Moor) did the work and in his trials but was committed to Dream Alliance for this race and they will head towards the Singapore Derby too.”
Golden Monkey’s fifth win – and third at Group level – from 12 starts in Singapore took his prizemoney close to the $400,000 mark for connections.
