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Magic Wand breaks long spell

3 minute read

Trainer Tan Kah Soon was thrilled no end after Magic Wand returned to winning ways two days short of exactly two years on Saturday.

MAGIC WAND winning the CLASS 3
MAGIC WAND winning the CLASS 3 Picture: Singapore Turf Club

It was actually the first time the Star Witness six-year-old was scoring under the former Godolphin assistant-trainer's care as his previous four wins had come for trainers Bruce Marsh, Ricardo Le Grange and Lee Freedman, the latter being the one who prepared him to that last success in a Kranji Stakes C race over 1400m on November 9, 2018.

But with Tan having handled Magic Wand at half of his 22 starts now, he was entitled to feel like the Jeffrey Soh-owned chestnut had been part of the furniture for a long time.

The challenge for Team Tan had been to maintain Magic Wand's level of fitness between runs given he's an individual that you can't knock too much work into.

After an encouraging comeback race when seventh to Rocket Star, but only just over three lengths astern, nine months after his last start, that challenge was successfully tackled when Magic Wand was able to extend his record to a fifth win in Saturday's $70,000 Class 3 Division 1 race over 1200m on Polytrack.

Taking advantage of a smart break from barrier No 6, Magic Wand rolled forward to land outside the noted frontrunner of the race, Magnifique (Mohd Zaki), to remain scotched to that spot for most of the way.

Turning for home, Magic Wand was the first to pounce the moment Magnifique hoisted the white flag, and under Krisna Thangamani's urgings, kept pulling plenty even if his strides did shorten up noticeably inside the last 50m, not to mention there were a couple of closers swooping down with their late big runs.

Begging for the line, Magic Wand was, however, able to scrape home by a head from Nationality (Iskandar Rosman) with Siam Warrior (Marc Lerner) in third place another neck away.

The following figures are not any magic trick that his name might conjure, but they will knock readers off their socks nonetheless!

With all the buzz about the 11.11 crazy sale coming up on Wednesday, Magic Wand  could not have made a better sale pitch. He ran the 1200m on the Polytrack in – hold on to your seat - 1min 11.11secs while returning a juicy dividend of $111!

No-nonsense Tan had no time for such numerological happenstance, he was just happy his horse was in the number one winner's stall, hoping more sticks will be added to the record.

"You could tell he was so good in himself today, just from the way he was behind the barriers as well," said the Penang-born conditioner.

"He's really come on from his last run. You can't do too much with him between runs.

"He's such a brave horse. (Trainer) Ricardo (Le Grange) told me he comes from a very good family related to a good horse he had, Bale Star.

"He's got so much guts even though he was running on empty in the end.

"They didn't go fast, and he ended up there, handy. He jumped well, Krisna got him out of the gates quickly, we thought they'd go quicker.

"That's the way the race unfolded, and he ended up handy. At the top of the straight, there wasn't much choice, he had to hit the front.

"I don't think he went too soon, but of course if he had got beat, we would have said that! He was hanging on very well, Krisna gave him a very good ride."

Tan added that the other factor that helped towards the return to winning ways was the weather.

"He's always dry-coated, he doesn't sweat, but the weather was cool today. That helped him a lot," he said.

With that fifth win, Magic Wand has now amassed more than $260,000 in stakes earnings for Soh's Titanium Racing Stable.


Singapore Turf Club

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