3 minute read

Trainer Hideyuki Takaoka was spot-on when he thought Sunday’s $45,000 Class 4 Non Premier race (1700m) would be a winnable race for his relatively small team of five runners, but he probably did not expect the win to come from the less-fancied half of his duo.

With Angel Halo already a proven Polytrack performer having been successful over the same course and distance two starts back, and Bebop still winless after 16 attempts and untested over the all-weather, both trainer and punters were pinning their hopes on the former.

Angel Halo (Olivier Placais) was punted down to $12 favouritism while Bebop had fewer friends at $69 in the small eight-horse field, but the end-result completely bucked that trend as far as racing logic goes.

Angel Halo was already a beaten horse at the 700m after looping around three wide from the 1000m. Placais was seen wielding the stick early, but the King Halo four-year-old was unresponsive and soon retired out the race to beat one home.

On the other hand, Bebop, who had all along been buried on the rails in midfield, was showing more ticker when Red Riding Wood (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) towed them up into the home straight.

Coming from last, Happy Saga (Alysha Collett) was also warming up to the task as he sprang into contention on the outside, but under Zaki’s urgings, Bebop lengthened up the best inside the last furlong once he found a gap, pulling away to a 1 ½-length win from Red Riding Wood.

Happy Saga peaked on his run to settle for third place another half-a-length away. The winning time was 1min 46.32secs for the 1700m on the Polytrack.

“I think the two turns and the switch to Polytrack suited him today,” said Takaoka.

“I’m not sure what happened to Angel Halo. He ran flat, he was very disappointing.”

Zaki, who was bringing up his 11th winner for the year, a very decent score for the Kelantan-born rider given the highly-competitive riding ranks these days, said he only listened to his former master’s instructions.

“All the credit goes to the trainer. I’m just the jockey and went with how Mr Takaoka wanted me to ride the race,” he said.

“I think it was a good thing Harry (A’Isisuhairi) went around early (down the backstraight) to inject speed into the race. The quicker pace suited my horse.”

A four-year-old by Rock ‘N’ Pop, Bebop was opening his account at his 17th start at his very first start on Polytrack to take his earnings past the $50,000 mark for the KM Racing Stable.