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Trainer Young Keah Yong welcomed his first treble in Singapore nearly one and a half years after launching his career at Kranji.
Coincidentally, all three winners were at their first Singapore win.
With the Singaporean 40-years-old not having yet claimed any “black type” races, the hat-trick of wins from Gratus, Sierra Conqueror and Pegasus Junior were to him his “biggest achievement” thus far.
Australian import Sierra Conqueror scored from start to finish in the $80,000 Class 3 Division 1 race over 1000m. Known as Return On Equity and trained by Steven O’Dea, Sierra Conqueror came with a handy record of two wins and one second from three starts.
Runner-up Lim’s Shot (Syahir Abdul) was half-a-length away in second. The winning time was 59.29secs for the 1000m sprint on the Polytrack.
Young thought The B Two Stable-owned gelding by Nicconi was fit and well, though his preparation before the race had not been the most adequate.
“He was a transfer, so the time frame to train him was a bit tight,” said Young.
“But his work was very well and he was fit, so I thought I could put on a three-kilo claimer (Chin who rode the horse at 50.5kg) and let him have a go.
“He won for a new Singaporean owner Daniel Kok, and he currently has this one horse with me.
“From the way he runs, I will probably keep him to this distance or 1100m for now.”
Though Chin was fined for not being able to fully claim down to 49kgs, the Malaysian rider was still happy with his second win for Young.
“He gave me a good feel all the way,” said the apprentice jockey who saluted on another debutant for Young last Sunday, My Dreamliner .
“He’s got a lot of speed, but he’s drawn wide today, so the instruction was to go straight to the front and see how he goes.”
Earlier on, $12-race favourite Gratus saluted in the $20,000 Open Maiden Division 2 race over 1200m under the newly-crowned Singapore champion apprentice jockey Troy See, who was at a double (Dragon High) on Friday.
The four-year-old son of Rip Van Winkle jumped from the inside gate to race on the speed while Stardice (Vlad Duric) headed him on his outside. The two frontrunners broke free from the rest at the 250m, before Gratus gradually gained the upperhand by one-and-a-half-lengths at the post.
Whakaaria Mai (Erasmus Aslam) was another one-and-a-three-quarters length away in third. The winning time was 1min 12.47secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.
“I was confident he could do well. His last two runs were nice,” said Young, with reference to the gelding’s two placings, and whom he owns in partnership with Ross Mackay.
“Based on his breeding, I will step him up in distance for sure.”
As for Pegasus Junior ($56), the win came mainly thanks to a patient ride from Michael Rodd. The Battle Paint six-year-old ran on well to beat Gain Eclipse (Kok Wei Hoong) by one-and-a-quarter lengths in the $38,000 Kranji Stakes D race over 1200m.
The winning time was 1min 12.73 secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack. It was also his maiden win at his 15th start in Singapore.
“That’s his natural racing pattern, I just hoped he could get to the front without any trouble,” said Young of his third winner and 34th winner of the year.
“Very happy about three winners tonight.”
While See has already cemented his status as the new Singapore champion apprentice jockey this season (his closest rival Wong Chin Chuen has been suspended till next January 6), and trainer Lee Freedman is close to securing his first champion trainer title in Singapore (66, seven more than the second-placed Shane Baertschiger), the fight in the jockeys’ premiership between Duric and Rodd will go down to the wire on Sunday.
Both Duric (The Big Easy) and Rodd (Pegasus Junior) scored one winner each on the second-last meeting of the year, maintaining the gap at two winners - 72 and 70 respectively.
