More ground would be the Preferred option

Preferred may have scored in a humble $35,000 Maiden race over 1100m, but trainer Theo Kieser was still over the moon he had been able to train another winner for one of his small but stalwart owners, Sunny Goh, on Friday night.

Goh’s one and only previous horse – also with Kieser - was Secondtonone who, though just a Class 4 bread-and-butter sort, still won five races and more than $200,000 in stakes earnings. Atfer the son of Canny Lad was retired in 2012, Goh took a back seat from horse ownership, but then reignited his hobby when he bought a two-year-old by Elusive City that he named Preferred in 2014.

Though Preferred was not quite something out-of-the-box by any stretch of the imagination from his early showings since his debut in August 2014, his recent runs had given hints of improvement, which was wonderfully franked by Friday’s win at his 11th start.

Ridden by Barend Vorster, Preferred ($34) did not enjoy the best of starts when he got shuffled back after taking a squeeze upon despatch, but was luckily able to find a spot on the rails, worse than midfield.

Upfront, his stablemate Heavenly Gift (Kif Toh) rolled along at a decent clip, with Pure White (Nooresh Juglall) in close attendance, but the biggest threats were hailing from Lucky Command (Corey Brown) and Confeign (Erasmus Aslam) when the field straightened up.

Preferred was then still spotting the leaders around four lengths but the moment a gap appeared on the outside of Confeign, he sprouted wings to go and record a one-length win from Lucky Command, with Confeign third another length away.

One run that caught the eye had to be that of Pure White, who despite slugging it out three wide from the outset, stayed on and even came back again to finish fifth only less than three lengths astern of the winner. The winning time was 1min 6.47secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.

“The owner has not won a race for a very long time. He used to have Secondtonone who wasn’t a bad little horse for us,” said Kieser (Secondtonone’s last win came on November 25, 2011).

“This horse wants a bit further and we will be exploring that path with him at his next races.”

Vorster agreed that the New Zealand-bred would enhance his chance of flying the light green and black stripes colours high again if he was stepped up in distance.

“He travelled relaxed for me and when the gap opened at the top of the straight, he just went through it,” said Vorster, whose licence was recently extended until the end of the year.

“He didn’t need any stick and he still won very comfortably. He’s a horse who used to give us some headaches at the barriers, but he’s a lot more settled now.

“He’s a big and strong horse who will get better over more ground. It sure was a nice way to celebrate my licence extension!”