There were happy faces a plenty in the Baertschiger yard as they delivered the first winner for their new owners from the Land Of A Thousand Smiles.
Racing under the silks of new owner and Thai businessman Pusit K, Golden Tomahawk produced a sensational debut run to take out the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1000m in convincing fashion on Sunday.
Ridden by jockey Matthew Kellady, the Australian-bred chestnut was utterly dominant as he exploded down the straight past favourite Racer King (Soo Khoon Beng) to finish with five-and-a-half lengths to spare while fellow debutant Big City (Nooresh Juglall) was a distant third, another three-and-a-half lengths adrift.
“That was very impressive and it was great to get the first winner for the new owner and I’m sure he’ll be very happy with this,” said Shane Baertschiger, whose 37th winner of the campaign has moved him up to fourth in the premiership standings and just one win behind third-placed Hideyuki Takaoka.
“He has a farm in Bangkok where he breeds horses and races them in Thailand. When he was in Singapore last year he came over to my stables and said he wanted to get started in racing horses here and so I brought him to the Ready 2 Race Sales in Sydney last October and he has three horses with me now.”
The other two gallopers, Stock Broker and Suvarnabhumi have yet to salute, with a single placing from five starts between them. Meanwhile, Golden Tomahawk, a A$80,000 purchase, has immediately established himself as one to watch following this commanding display.
“It was actually Mr Pusit himself who picked him out,” said Baertschiger of the three-year-old by Turffontein out of Night Sky Dancer. “He would have raced earlier this year but suffered from a shin sore and that’s why we sent him for a short spell to recover.”
Two solid outings at the barrier trials in August, with Kellady taking over the reins from John Powell, was enough to convince the Australian handler that the colt was more than ready to make his Kranji bow.
“I thought he was going to run well today. He had a very nice trial last week (finishing second behind Rusty Brown) and beat some experienced race horses (like Greenstone and Eden Park).”
Following a smart jump from stall five, Golden Tomahawk ($10) quickly took up a handy position running one wide of early frontrunner Big City and kept the leader within touching distance before Kellady released the handbrakes on his mount who needed only minimal persuasion before switching on the afterburners and leave his rivals chasing his shadow. The winning time for the five furlongs sprint on the Polytrack was a smart 58.79secs.
“I honestly didn’t expect him to run that well,” said Kellady, who continued his recent rich vein of form with his sixth winner in August. The Ipoh-born hoop saluted aboard Seaswallow, another runner from the Baertschiger yard, on Friday night, and has now collected 10 winners this season.
“When he got to the top of the straight I had to give him one more backhander to keep his mind on the job and after that he gave me everything when I asked him to and I knew he was going to win easily from there.”
