Trainer Mok Zhan Lun made a welcome return to the winner’s circle when Spring Thunder took out the Class 4 Stakes over 1600m on the Polytrack on Sunday
Ridden by comeback jockey Ivaldo Santana, Spring Thunder scored a half-length victory over Daad’s The Way (Alan Munro) with Bannister (Lisa Allpress) the same margin away in third place.
Pickings have been a little lean for Mok in the second half of the season with Spring Thunder’s success just his fifth since the start of September.
Sunday’s race was run at a fast clip. Ron (Rueven Ravindra) rolled along at the head off affairs with Rusty Brown (Corey Brown) and Bannister the next in line.
Coming off the back-straight Ron held a good six length advantage over his rivals but coming to the hometurn was starting to put out distress signals.
Allpress on Bannister whipped around on the outside of the favourite Rusty Brown just as Ron weakened and as a consequence Rusty Brown was held up for a few strides.
Spring Thunder had worked his way into fourth position as the turn was reached. Bannister took over with 300m left to run but was quickly collared by the winner who hit the lead with 200m to run.
Daad’s The Way, who had been with the backmarkers in the early stages, got out wide in the straight and started to eat into Spring Thunder’s margin, but the post arrived too soon.
Mok praised the ride of Santana aboard Spring Thunder for his calmness when Ron got out with a big lead in the middle stages of the race.
“It was a good ride by Santana,” said Mok. “He stayed calm on the fast pace and didn’t panic at all.
“This horse is still developing and he appreciated the step back up to 1600m today. He’s still only a three-year-old and next year as a four-year-old he should be even stronger.
“I think he is still progressing and will like stepping up in distance as he gets older.
“I’ll see how he pulls-up from this run and then decide whether to keep him going or give him a bit of a break.”
A US-bred three-year-old by Spring At Last from Wassifa, Spring Thunder landed his first victory on the Polytrack with Sunday’s victory.
In total Spring Thunder has won three of his 10 starts and with one third placing to his credit has now won in excess of $100,000 in prizemoney for the Spring Racing Stab
