The party may be in Brazil, as the world’s gaze is firmly set on the World Cup, but Fortaleza-born jockey Manoel Nunes recent form has been equally eye-catching.
Nunes' form has been impossible to ignore and Singapore’s leading rider capped a memorable day of racing on Friday night with an incredible haul of six winners.
From his near-full book of eight rides for the nine-race meeting, Nunes struck gold in six of them and placed in the remaining two. In between his Group 3 Yew Tee Classic Stakes (1800m) win astride the Desmond Koh-trained City Lad, he also saluted aboard Snitzel Spirit, Sand Lane, Danny and another two runners from Koh’s yard, Big Harvest and Reach For The Sun in the final event of the programme, a $60,000 Class 4 race over 1200m on the Polytrack.
Nunes was understandably over the moon with his incredible achievement, which will be regarded as one of the finest displays of riding at Kranji in recent memory, topped only by fellow Brazilian Joao Moreira’s almost unbelievable feat of a perfect eight wins from eight rides on September 6, 2013 and Singaporean hoop Saimee Jumaat’s magnificent seven winners from 12 rides on August 2, 2009.
“Of course I’m very happy with tonight and to get six winners is fantastic,” said Nunes, a former six-time Macau champion jockey whose personal record has been seven winners in a single meeting, achieved during his time in the former Portuguese enclave.
“I had some pretty good rides booked and was pretty confident of a good night but I was just waiting to see what would happen. In the end it was just a perfect night.”
With half of the season already completed, Nunes, who relocated here last year and bagged 112 winners but had to settle for second in the premiership behind the now Hong Kong-based Moreira, has clocked 73 winners, more than twice as many on the jockey’s log as the second-placed duo of Alan Munro and Corey Brown.
Both men are on 36 wins while Nunes has extended his lead and looks favourite to land his first jockey’s title here.
“I want to thank the Singapore Turf Club for giving me the opportunity to come here and also to all the owners and trainers who have supported me. I couldn’t have done this without all their support,” he said.
Almost all of his winning rides were aboard the short-priced favourites, with the exception of the Cliff Brown-trained Sand Lane who paid out $26 when Nunes steered him home for a convincing victory in Race 5, a $80,000 Kranji Stakes C race over 1000m.
After allowing Honest Truth (Soo Khoon Beng) a brief lead during the early exchange of the contest, Nunes punched the accelerator on his mount who stormed clear down the home straight and finished with two-and-a-quarter lengths to spare from runner-up Peace No War (Munro).
Another length-and-a-half adrift was Maple Star (John Powell) as Sand Lane clocked a winning time of 59.31secs on the Polytrack.
“He was actually a bit keen today and I had to make the decision whether to go or not,” said Nunes. “Once we were in the lead I could control the pace from the front and he’s a good horse and the race was over at that point.”
It was the New Zealand-bred gelding’s third win from 15 starts and also avenged a one-length defeat to Peace No War in January this year. A five-year-old out of Sandtrap out of Tivoli Lane, Sand Land has amassed a shade over $210,000 in prizemoney for the Sand Lane Stable.
More importantly for trainer Brown, it also signalled a clean bill of health and return to form for his classy sprinter, who was out of action for several months during the first half of this year.
“I would like to thank (Singapore Turf Club veterinary surgeon) Dr Dan Shaw who performed a throat surgery on him after his start in February,” said the Australian conditioner, who brought his tally this season to 30 wins. After that he needed a bit of a break to rest up and he’s come back looking great.”
While Sand Lane had looked decidedly rusty at his comeback two weeks ago, fading late down the stretch to finish sixth behind Southern Boss in an Open Benchmark 83 race (1000m), Brown was unconcerned.
“It was his first-up and he just needed that race as he was still a bit new,” he said. “He did a good job today and the turnaround in weights (unlike their previous match-up where Peace No War carried 52.5kg compared to Sand Lane’s load of 54kg, the former was carrying 58kg to the latter’s 56.5kg) was also a factor.
“He’s a horse that needs to lead, otherwise he can’t win from the back.”
As for the man of the hour, there was only one thing on Nunes’ mind following his sensational effort.
“How am I going to celebrate? I’m going to sleep!” he laughed. “I have to be back at work bright and early tomorrow morning.”
