Race-favourite Ocean General lived up to his trainer Tan Hor Khoon’s expectations when he scored back-to-back wins in the $60,000 Class 4 race (1100m) on Friday.
A confident Tan had faith that his galloper would run well if he were to stick to the same frontrunning tactics he used at his last start. However, things did not go as planned at first as Balestra (Nooresh Juglall) had the same thought in mind and led the pack once out of the gates.
Not to worry, Ocean General's rider Koh Teck Huat decided to just ease his mount one-off the rails before going for the kill upon straightening.
Sweeping past Balestra, he hit the front. Pinning his ears back, he unleashed his big strides towards the finishing line to easily stave off Assertive Lad (Corey Brown) who did issue a stiff challenge, but it was too little too late.
Ocean General went on to score by 1 3/4 lengths from Assertive Lad with Clip The Ticket (Shafiq Rizuan) third another 1 3/4 lengths away.
Sent out as the $11 favourite, Ocean General won the race in 1min 5.26secs.
Tan was relieved that Ocean General had won again as he had made the Ocean General Stable-owned galloper his best chance for the night.
“The race went quite well, he was our best chance and he didn’t let us down,” said Tan.
“It was always the plan to lead, like the way he ran at his last start, but the other horse was faster than us.
“Anyway, I told Koh that if the pace was too quick for him to follow, let the other horse lead and save his energy for the home straight.”
Koh who was Ocean General's partner at his past two starts felt that the quick pace was to his advantage and was also glad that he knew the son of Zizou well, but still handed the credit to Tan for preparing Ocean General well.
“He was very well prepared and I would like to thank the trainer for that,” said the Singaporean rider. “The pace was quite fast today but that suited my horse well.
“I know him quite well as I rode him before. I just let him run by himself for the most part but because he’s a one-paced horse, I had to let go earlier.”
Koh believes that the four-year-old had the makings of a Class 3 horse.
“He’s more of a sprinter and I think he will go up to Class three,” said Koh.
“It is a bit hard for him to go up further than that but I still hope that he will.”
Tan said he had no major plans for his sprinter as his priority is to let him get a well-deserved break.
“I feel that 1000m – 1100m is his best distance as I did try to run him in a 1200m race before but he didn’t handle the trip well,” said Tan.
“He is a one-paced horse and he ran the same time at his last run which is why I think he will probably stay in Class 3 as this is his limit.
“I will let him rest at the moment and see how he pulls up before deciding what’s next for him.”
