3 minute read

Trainer Mok Zhan Lun was thankful to the TMC Stable for their patience after My Everest blitzed his rivals in the $20,000 Open Maiden race over 1000m on Friday night.

The Singaporean handler walked away from the 2017 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale with high hopes after the son of All Too Hard was knocked down to him for A$100,000.

Mok told his new owners they could have a nice three-year-old contender on their hands. The name they chose reflected the heights they hoped he would reach one day, but a bout of tendonitis shattered those lofty plans.

My Everest  did recover after an eight-month layoff, but unfortunately, it wasn't in time to make it for last year's Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge.

The upshot was a longer time to mature and strengthen up. As a four-year-old when he finally stepped out for his Singapore debut on February 9, he ran a super second to Lord Justice in an Open Maiden race over 1200m.

He was bang on target second-up. Partnered again by Ruan Maia, he flew straight to the lead, stacked up the speed thereafter, and was off and gone in the straight.

My Everest ($11) did get a bit of the wanders late, but the 3 ¾-length romp still spoke volumes about the exciting engine under his bonnet. Super Pins (Benny Woodworth) ran second, with Ningaloo (Tengku Rehaizat) third another 3 ¼ lengths away. The winning time was 58.47secs for the 1000m on the Polytrack.

"The plan was to run him in the 3YO series last year. I always thought he was pretty special when I bought him at the Easter Sale, one of the best sales I know of, but of course, you never know until they race," said Mok.

"He was showing potential in his early work, but he had an injury, a tendonitis, and I had to put him away for eight months. Here, I have to thank the owners for their patience, they've been amazing.

"We'll see how he pulls up after this win. Hopefully, we can still plan a nice programme for him."

Maia, who has been Mok's go-to jockey this season, is odds-on to stay glued to My Everest's saddle.

"He's a very nice horse, he ran very nice at his first race. As it was his second time, I was expecting him to improve tonight," said the Brazilian rider.

"In the last 400m, he was hanging in, but he never stopped. He is still young and is still learning."