Fresh from his winning treble on Friday, trainer Stephen Gray kept the winning trot on the march when he saddled another treble in the first five races, including the quinella in Sunday's opener.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The back-in-form Kiwi handler's horses were all the rage again following Friday's hat-trick courtesy of Mr Gee, Joyful Melody and April's Knight, with this time Devonshire, Golden Curl and Silver Lining doing the honours.
With the treble it brought Gray's score up to 12 winners, just three behind current leader Leslie Khoo. Such early high returns certainly backed up his prediction at the end of a lacklustre season last year that he would get back on track in 2012.
Gray did begin last year reasonably well, but ran out of steam towards the tail end, picking up only two wins in the last two months (both from Indicio) to wind up with 34 winners.
“I did say this year would be better than last year, and things seem to be going that way. Fingers crossed, they stay that way,” said a delighted Gray.
“I thought the first winner (Devonshire) would need the run today. I did tell Danny (Beasley) he was on the best horse in the race but he probably needed a longer trip.
“But he ran fresh after I gave him a spell. He just had had enough (after his first prep) with racing then.
“My other horse (Ravoux) followed him but actually got stuck behind him. I thought he (Devonshire) would blow out because of his lack of fitness, but he kept hitting the line very well.
“Ravoux had every chance, but my other horse didn't stop. That's racing.”
Resuming from a three-month layoff, Devonshire ($68) defeated his better-fancied stablemate, favourite Ravoux ($12) by three parts of a length in the $55,000 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1200m.
Beasley said he went in with the confidence he was sitting atop the “best horse” in the race and things eventually panned out better than he thought.
“Steve just told me he was the best horse in the race but he was more of a miler and might need the run today,” said the Australian jockey.
“He had a lovely spot throughout and when I asked him for an effort, he hit the front very well, but then he didn't quite ping away from them.
“I kept working at him and in the end he did his best work at the finish to win. He's a nice horse and I think he will go higher than Class 4 when he goes over a mile.”
A four-year-old by Bachelor Duke, Devonshire is raced by the Patella Racing Stable headed by New Zealand Bloodstock's Asian representative Mike Kneebone and has now picked up stakes earnings of just under $70,000 from two wins in five runs.
Golden Curl was lining-up for his second start and Gray said inexperience had defeated the gelding on debut.
Ridden by Stephen Baster, Golden Curl scored a runaway six-length victory over Ktronic (Ivaldo Santana) with Von Snitzel (Olivier Placais) a length away third.
And now Gray will look to the second and third legs of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge – the Group 2 $350,000 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) and the Group 1 $500,000 Singapore Guineas (1600m) with the gelding.
A NZ$170,000 purchase from the Ready To Run Sales as a two-year-old, Golden Curl had won a couple of trials before finding his way to Singapore.
"We've taken our time with him but I think he's a very nice horse," said Gray.
"He's bred to get over further and I think he could develop into a lovely miler. I won't run him in the 1200m race in the Three-Year-Old Challenge, instead I'll concentrate on the 1400m and 1600m races.
"It's a great result for Paul (Hickman) who has put a lot of money into his horses up here in Singapore and hopefully he's got a good one here."
Despite drawing out in barrier 15 (he came into 13 after the scratchings), Baster was always confident of success despite racing three wide for the trip.
"I got some cover and was happy to see Joao (Moreira, on the favourite Burn It Up) sitting out four wide," said Baster.
"As soon as we had gone 200m I was always going to win. He was all over the shop up the straight and I certainly didn't get to the bottom of him.
"Naturally there is going to be quite a deal of improvement to come from him."
Baster said the easy six length winning margin was a welcome relief.
"I hate winning by a short-half-head all the time," said Baster. "It's much better winning by a good margin and being able to enjoy the win."
Golden Curl is a three-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding by Pentire from the Tierce mare Forsaken Gold and has won around $42,000 in prizemoney for the St George Stable from his two outings.
Gray rewarded the hard work of Andy Ismail in providing the claiming rider with victory aboard Silver Lining in the $35,000 Class 5 Stakes over 1600m to bring up the treble.
Silver Lining scored by a half-length over Sir Rumble (Jacky Low) with Subdue (Alan Ng) the same margin away third.
"Andy doesn't get a lot of opportunities so it's great to see him ride a winner," said Gray.
It was Silver Lining's fifth win from 43 starts and took his prizemoney close to $150,000 for the Sterling Silver stable.
