3 minute read
Tiger Force mauling his rivals in a Class 5 race won’t usually make for ground-breaking material other than the sheer contempt of the win – but it will actually be remembered for rewriting the history books, not once but twice, and certainly in unbelievable fashion for one of them.
Donna Logan's US-bred was handing Singapore champion jockey Vlad Duric a significant milestone – his 500th winner at Kranji, whilst pulling it off in record-breaking time!
Without taking anything away from the Australian jockey's feat, the half-tonne was a milestone which had been in the works, and was just waiting to be reached. Since his arrival in 2009, Duric has been winning races by the spades in two distinct periods 2009-2011 and 2016-2019, landing the title at the last two seasons.
But a Class 5 galloper with one solitary win from 18 starts and a rating of 39 finding his way into the record books has to be something that doesn't happen every day, anywhere in the racing world.
Still, the two-time Singapore champion hoop was not allowing his mount's jaw-dropping exploit of eclipsing a record held for a long time by one of Kranji's best milers outshine him.
"When I first came here in 2009, I never imagined one day I'd be riding 500 winners here," said Duric, who is well on his way towards a third title (64 winners, 15 clear of Benny Woodworth).
"It's a real privilege to have been riding here and ride so many winners. I can only hope I can ride another 500 winners here one day!
"It's also good the win came for Donna as she's been a very good supporter of mine."
As to whether he had any inkling whether the Kitten's Joy four-year-old had shaved 0.05 second off Better Than Ever's eight-year-old record of 1min 37.69secs for the Polytrack mile, Duric was in a jocular mood when giving his take on the pulsating run in the $30,000 Devonshire 2002 Stakes, a Class 5 Division 1 race.
"Donna told me that this horse made a breathing noise. When I jumped off, she asked me if I heard anything," he said.
"I told her I only heard 'Vroooom'!"
Indeed, Tiger Force ($45) completely annihilated the opposition when he was peeled off a rails-hugging run to sweep past the leader O'Reilly Star (Ng Choon Kiat) upon straightening.
Leaving his rivals standing, the chestnut just exploded away inside the last 200m to go and score by 4 ½ lengths from Heng Kingdom (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) with Etwas Neues (Marc Lerner) third another 1 ¾ lengths away.
Tiger Force has taken his prizemoney level past the $40,000 mark for Thai outfit Falcon Racing No 7 Stable with that most remarkable second win at Kranji.
