Promising juvenile Mexican Gal made up for her last two ordinary starts with a gutsy all-the-way win for trainer Laurie Laxon in the $75,000 Novice race over 1200m on Friday night.
Sporting blinkers for the first time, the daughter of Laxon’s former ace filly Mexican Rose jumped straight to the lead for new partner Rueven Ravindra, and although favourite Golden Tomahawk (Matthew Kellady) did not leave her an inch throughout the six-furlong journey, she swung for home full of running.
The favourite’s backers knew the Thai-owned debut winner was not going to double the dose that night when he was already seen back-pedalling at the 300m, but not Clip The Ticket (Corey Brown) who was gobbling up the ground at the rate of knots on the outside.
But Cliff Brown’s last-start winner also looked like he had come to the end of his run and with Mexican Gal ($91) not crumbling under pressure hard up against the rails, the race looked all sealed.
Such is the beauty of racing that it ain’t over until the fat lady sings, though. Mexican Gal suddenly shortened up and Clip The Ticket lunged in the shadows of the post. Kranji held its breath, but the Gal scraped home by a neck.
Golden Tomahawk ran third, beaten fair and square, more than four lengths away. The winning time was 1min 12.57secs for the 1200m on Polytrack.
Laxon said he applied the blinkers in a bid to help the nervous filly focus a little better.
“She gets spooked when she is around runners. She’s field-shy, and my word, the blinkers helped her tonight,” said the eight-time Singapore champion trainer.
“We told Rueven to give her a few smacks around the back as we noticed when she was ridden by Harry (Kasim A’Isisuhairi) she pins her ears back when she gets one or two.
“I haven’t set anything specific for her at this stage. I may look for a Graduation race for her next.
“Her dam was champion two-year-old here. She’s still got some way to go, but hopefully she takes after her one day.”
Rueven said the penny still has not dropped for Mexican Gal, who is owned by the same owner as her mother’s, Mr Tang Weng Fei’s Jupiter Stable.
“I was told to let her lead and for that, I had to prepare her in the barrier,” said the Malaysian rookie.
“She had another horse trying to pass her and I think that kept her going. She was a little one-paced and tired in the end but she did a good job to go all the way.
“She tried really hard tonight and I think there is more to come from her in the future.”
