The last race was billed as the highlight of the night, but you could hear a pin drop at Kranji after rank-outsider Reach For The Sun defied all calculations to steal the thunder.
Coming back after a 140-day break, the six-year-old rig by California Dane slipped past most with all the boom on the resuming Caorunn and Group 2-winning Irish-bred Senator, among the leading lights in that $60,000 Open Benchmark 67 race over 1000m.
But horses don’t read, they just run, and if they get the rub of the green, they win races.
Aided by a copybook ride from apprentice jockey Wong Chin Chuen, Reach For The Sun ($341), who jumped from barrier No 1, certainly found himself in a position to take the race by the scruff of the neck. He had an economical run and when it was time to pop the question, the main dangers were not as hot as they were cracked out to be.
Coming quickly under pressure, Senator (Manoel Nunes) was the first to flounder and disappear out of the race while even-money favourite Caorunn (Matthew Kellady), who missed the start a fraction, was still showing plenty of ticker as he collared race-leader Winning Man (A’Isisuhairi Kasim).
But Caorunn, who was first-up after being away for more than six months, was also cracking under pressure, signs he might have been short of a run.
Upfront, Wong could not have asked for more as he kept pushing his mount straight ahead to a major boilover, which was still an authoritative one-length win from Roselli (Michael Rodd), who held second spot by a short head from the fast-finishing Anonymous (John Sundradas).
Caorunn did well to hang on for fourth place another nose away while Senator crumbled completely to run last. The winning time was 59.77 seconds for the 1000m scamper.
“Reach For The Sun was coming back from a long break, but his lead-up work had been good,” said winning trainer Desmond Koh, who looked delighted with the gobsmacking win.
“He was not too overweight. I thought he would need the run but I was still expecting him to run well.
“Barrier No 1 was a big help. He was able to follow the early leaders in a good spot and the pace suited him nicely.
“He was moving very well and in the home straight, when I saw the favourites were not improving as expected, I knew we had a good chance.”
Wong said he just followed Koh’s instructions – take a sit off the leaders and let him run home at the top of the straight.
“The horse jumped well and was always travelling nicely behind the speed,” said the 2016 Singapore champion apprentice jockey.
“He responded when I went for him in the straight. When I didn’t hear any horse coming at us at the 100m, I knew he would be hard to beat.”
Reach For The Sun was recording his fourth win from 22 starts for prizemoney that has now shot past the $220,000 mark for his Macau owner Cheng Ting Kong.
