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A drop back in Class 4 company was the key to a return to winning ways for Reddot Rising on Friday night.
The son of Nadeem has always been a handy customer in that grade, recording the last of his three wins in such company in an 1400m event last July, but a push towards tougher opposition, including a stab at Group 3 level in the Moonbeam Vase (1600m) in November, has seen him struggle.
Trainer Saimee Jumaat’s decision to ease the six-year-old back a notch in Friday’s $50,000 Selangor Turf Club Trophy, a Class 4 race over 1700m, was met with instant rewards.
At the top of the straight, connections must have thought the gambit would not pay off, though. Leader Bangkok Boy (Glen Boss) looked to have stolen a march when he opened up to a commanding break with Reddot Rising spotting him around eight lengths in mid-division.
But once Vlad Duric got a wriggle on, Reddot Rising steadily ate the ground up down the centre of the track, with the issue soon put beyond any doubt when he swept past a punctured Bangkok Boy at the 300m.
Cash Is King (Wong Chin Chuen) and the well-backed Bebop (Marc Lerner) ran on well too, but not well enough to trouble Reddot Rising, who had two and one quarter lengths to spare from Cash Is King as he coasted to the line an easy winner.
Bebop was a short head away in third. The winning time was 1min 45.56secs for the 1700m on the Polytrack.
“He has been racing well and we found an ideal race for him tonight,” said Saimee.
“He’s a genuine horse who never runs a bad race. There is no reason why he won’t be right there again if we put him back in a higher-rated race.”
Hammered in late to start as the $14 favourite, Reddot Rising now races in Saimee’s maroon colours after his former owner George Tay recently passed away.
“It’s been well-documented the horse belonged to the late George Tay. It’s a nice tribute to him,” said the former eight-time Singapore champion jockey.
“The team behind me all know George as one of the best clients at the stable. I’m sure he’s looking down on us and is very proud of his horse.”
Duric, who has now partnered Reddot Rising to three of his four wins, said the tempo of the race was not to his liking 500m into the race, but he was luckily able to ride out those testing sectionals.
“There was a nice pace to the race, but at the 1200m, they went at a gallop that was too strong for him,” said the two-time Singapore champion jockey.
“I put his head down just to get him to relax and feel comfortable. I knew he would finish strongly, and it was a good effort from him to win the way he did.”
With his record now reading 23-4-1-2, Reddot Rising has taken his stakes earnings past the $160,000 mark for Saimee.
Continuing their red-hot form, Saimee and Duric recombined in the next race, the $20,000 Maiden Division 2 race over 1200m, to bring up a race-to-race double with short-priced favourite ($8) Stardice.
