After two close-up seconds, American-bred gelding Green Jacket opened his account in style at his sixth run for the Hideyuki Takaoka-Alan Munro combination on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The British jockey and the Japanese handler have forged a fruitful association that began at the tail-end of the former's first riding term at Kranji last year and that has consolidated further into a haul of seven wins this term.
That seventh success aboard Green Jacket in the $65,000 Lim's Ransom 2005 Stakes, an Initiation race over 1600m, was yet another token of their good chemistry.
“Alan and I discussed before the race and we thought it would be better to ride him more positive this time,” said Takaoka.
“The inside was not so good as well. Alan knows the horse very well and knew how best to ride him.
“He's a horse who should get even better over more ground. The owners (Sakura Stable) bought him together with Caribbean Moon and Napoleon B from the States.”
Settled in the first tier of the field travelling three wide for most of the way, the Pollard's Vision four-year-old was the first to descend on the leaders upon straightening before pulling away in tradesman-like fashion for a convincing 1 ¾ length win over Bidabull (Danny Beasley) with favourite Full Toss (Joao Moreira) seeing daylight late for third another two lengths away.
The winning time was 1min 38.75secs.
“He was on his right trip today. The last couple of races were too short for him,” said Munro who was riding his 11th winner for the year.
“He's also a lot more focused. He was a little unsure at his last runs and he also likes the cut in the ground.”
