Big smokie Sacred Gift paid out a whopping $285 win dividend to lucky supporters after he took out the $85,000 Class 2 race over 1200m on the Polytrack on Saturday.
In the relatively small field of eight, there was money for three Polytrack specialists, namely, $11 favourite General Command, the flashy grey Illustrious ($23) and Major King, who was punted down to $15 late and jumped as the second favourite.
Upon settling into the first bend, punters looked to be on the money as jockey Bernard Queiroz made good use of gate two to lead on Illustrious as expected, while General Command (Manoel Nunes) was happy to sit on his flank.
Major King, who was slowly away under jockey Wong Chin Chuen from barrier three, pushed forward to eventually sit one-back on the rails. On turning for home, all three fancies looked to have every chance to win the race.
Meanwhile, jockey Iskandar Rosman – who claimed two kilos to ride Sacred Gift at 48kgs – was biding his time at the tail of the field, with only Ocean Crossing (Amirul Ismadi) behind him in the run.
Into the straight, Illustrious looked to be cruising after he put a length on General Command and Major King, who both looked to be battling. Illustrious kicked strongly and looked to be a winning chance at the 250m.
But the race changed complexion in a heartbeat. While Illustrious was leading by about three lengths at the 150m, the strides suddenly shortened, before Sacred Gift shot out of the pack to close in in the final 100m.
After overtaking Illustrious, Sacred Gift still had to hold off a spirited Major King, who had found another gear late on the inside, before he got up by a neck at the post.
The resuming Surpass Natural (Jerlyn Seow) ran an eye-catching third another half-a-length away in third. The winning time was 1 min 11.38secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.
The win may have surprised most people, but winning trainer Jerome Tan was confident of a good run from a horse he has a lot of time for.
“This horse has been good to me,” said Tan of the eight-year-old son of Zoustar.
“I think that was his third win for me since I got him from (ex-Kranji trainer) Mark (Walker). He often places, so he has more than paid his way and is a good horse to have in the stable.
“I know he was the rank outsider, but the race suited too. He’s always best when he has no weight. He placed (second) behind General Command only two starts ago (in a Class 2 race over 1100m on 13 August) when ridden on the pace with the same weight (48kgs).
“And he’s also better when he settles back, so I instructed Iskandar to ride him at the rear and hopefully the race would be run at a good pace.
“Illustrious has stopped before over 1200m, so I thought we had a chance in the straight.
“Iskandar has won on this horse twice before (5 March and 2 April 2022), so we had that in our favour too. It was a good ride and a good result.”
Iskandar agreed the change in tactics was pivotal to the win.
“Jerome made a plan to ride him back in this race and it worked,” said the popular Malaysian rider.
“So we stayed with the plan and I rode him for luck. I wanted to get him to the outside at the 400m as he was going really good, but I couldn’t, so I took the gaps and it worked out well.
“Of course, 48kgs helped and I have won on this horse twice before, so I know him well. I knew we were a good chance in the straight.
“Thanks to the owners (Raffles Racing Stable) and Jerome for entrusting me with the ride.”
Of Sacred Gift’s future plans, Tan planned to keep him running in the sprint races on the all-weather surface.
“He’s an old horse and he always runs in good company,” he said.
“So we will stick to Polytrack sprints and find another race that he gets a lightweight and he can find his mark again.”
Sacred Gift’s seventh win from 47 starts took his prizemoney to over $400,000 for connections.
By Larry Foley, Singapore Turf Club
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