The handy field looked daunting and the first 1600m test always a nagging doubt, but rising star Jupiter Gold blew away these concerns by making winning look awfully simple in the $80,000 Abundance Stakes Class 3 race on Sunday.
After always showing tremendous potential as a two-year-old, Jupiter Gold had thrived even further as he turned three, as evidenced by his last two resounding victories.
The son of Congrats first licked a Class 4 field in a 1200m race. The bar was then raised to Class 3 company in a 1400m event at his first-up run in 2017, and the signature last-to-first turn of foot was again awe-inspiring.
But he was shouldering four kilos more on Sunday, and stepping up to the mile for the first time against exciting sorts like Battle Of Troy, Preditor, Toliman and Elite Beast.
At the half-mile point, fears for the $12 favourite were legitimate as he was still bringing up the rear alongside Elite Beast (Glen Boss) while $25 second-elect Battle Of Troy (Wong Chin Chuen) looked to have a good control of the race at the head of affairs, hard up against the rails.
But the whole complexion changed in a matter of a few strides as Jupiter Gold was hooked to the outside for his run from the 500m while Elite Beast elected for the inside path. The Cliff Brown runner had all the trouble in the world to find a crack in the wall of horses in front of him, but Jupiter Gold enjoyed a clear uninterrupted run to the line on the outside.
With Munro riding with his usual vigour, Jupiter Gold quickly rounded up the field to have the race shot to pieces, even if he was inclined to lay in badly inside the last few yards.
In the end, Hideyuki Takaoka’s exciting three-year-old romped in by 2 ½ lengths from Toliman (Gerald Mosse) with Elite Beast a luckless third another three parts of a length away. The winning time was a sizzling 1min 34.11secs for the mile on the Long Course, which is only 0.83 second outside the record established by Magneto in 2014.
“Like I said before, today’s race was a good test for the Guineas,” said Takaoka.
“I didn’t think he would win that easily as the field was pretty strong. He was hanging in quite badly today, it’s something he did once and I may have to look into this as he steps up in class.
“But he won a nice race today, and the Guineas remains his main target.”
Even before Sunday’s race, Takaoka had already hinted he might give the first Leg of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge, the Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1200m), a miss for Jupiter Gold. The second Leg is the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) on April 14 while the last Leg, the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) will be run on May 14.
Munro was as usual not very loquacious at the winner’s circle but did give a little insight in the split-second decisions over which races are won or lost.
“At the 600m to 400m, it gets a bit tricky at times. I was lucky Glen Boss took the inside run and I had a clear passage on the outside,” he said.
“The horse was very impressive to the line.”
With that fifth win, Jupiter Gold has already brought in more than $230,000 in prizemoney for his Japanese owner Mr Kaz Hosaka.
