Danny Beasley cannot quite put his finger on it but to him, trainer Mohd Yusof just has a Midas touch when it comes to patching up his old horses.
Dragon Spirit was the latest winner to reinforce that feeling in the Australian jockey after he held all comers at bay in the $60,000 Better Than Ever 2012 Stakes, a Class 4 race over 1000m on Polytrack.
Taken straight to the lead, the Due Sasso seven-year-old was ridden on a piece of cotton in the 10-horse field before he went for broke at the top of the straight. Favourite Nova Eagle (Shafiq Rizuan) launched his bid but could not quite collar him while longshot Happy Happy was revving up on the rails under comeback jockey Olivier Placais.
Dragon Spirit ($28), however, prevailed to score by three parts of a length from Happy Happy who tipped off Nova Eagle for second place by a short head. The winning time was 59.87 seconds.
“Yusof is one of the best trainers at Kranji. I won on Dragon for him last week and now Dragon Spirit,” said Beasley.
“They are no world-beaters but Yusof just knows how to bring them to their best on raceday. I told him a couple of weeks ago that this bloke felt more like a three-year-old when I rode him in trackwork.
“You can tell he is a very happy horse, even though he’s an old horse. It’s remarkable how he can get his horses in such a good mood.”
The humble trainer was as usual shying away from the limelight, preferring to deflect all the flattery back to Beasley.
“I don’t know this horse well but he came to me in good shape and I just did my part. Danny did the rest,” said Yusof.
Dragon Spirit used to be prepared by Theo Kieser for whom he won four races (including three when ridden by Beasley) and Alwin Tan for whom he scored only once and has now recorded his first win for Yusof at his third run for the Singaporean trainer. He has now brought up stakes earnings past the $340,000 mark for owner Tan Gim Guan.
The day got even better for Yusof when he later brought up a training double, a rare feat for him, with joint $17 favourite Smart Lad (Mohd Firdaus) getting the verdict in a close five-way finish in the penultimate event, the $60,000 Que Expresion 2003 Stakes, a Class 4 race over 1800m.
Smart Lad, a four-year-old by Prince Arthur, hit the front halfway up the front and dug deep to get up by a neck from Taramea (Amirul Ismadi), with Arhat (Antonio da Silva), the other co-favourite Zip A Dee Doo Dah (Alan Munro) and Guru-Guru (Azhar Ismail) finishing in that order with the photo needed to split them.
“The kid told me he couldn’t hold him. He was very fit today, probably the fittest he's every been,” said Yusof.
“Normally, he takes a sit in midfield but he was up there with the pace today. It was a nice win.”
