Argentinian newcomer Master Of Malibu franked his smart barrier trial form with a commanding win in the $65,000 Initiation race over 1200m on Friday night.
The Ricardo Le Grange-trained and Tmen Stable-owned galloper landed in Singapore with a record of one second in only one start at San Isidro in a 1000m scamper back in January.
The early promise does not seem to have been lost when he travelled halfway around the world to Singapore, as could be seen from his two barrier trials under race-jockey Barend Vorster – two seconds from as many trials.
Sent out as the third pick at $27, Master Of Malibu, a first progeny in Singapore of former Dubai Group 1 Jebel Hatta winner Master Of Hounds, stayed nicely scotched to the rails from the jump, only moving off for his assault upon straightening.
Big outsider Make U Famous (Ng Choon Kiat) tried to counter him for half the length of the straight, but Le Grange’s ward packed too many guns in the end as he drew clear to post a two-length win from Make U Famous. Around The World (Olivier Placais), the other debutant in the race, ran third another head away.
The winning time was 1min 13.06secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.
Le Grange, who is familiar with the bloodlines, is convinced the best of Master Of Malibu will be seen once he is risen in distance.
“He is by Master Of Hounds who was trained by Mike de Kock after the Sheikh Khalifa bought him from Coolmore. At the time, he was in the same batch as Eagle Mountain and Archipenko as the other top horses Mike bought from Coolmore.
“On that breeding, Master Of Malibu is bred to stay. There is still a lot of improvement to come out from tonight’s run.
“Well done to Mark and Emily Yong who have been loyal supporters for many years. They got themselves another nice Argentinian horse who was bought by Ignacio Pavlovsky, who scouts our horses in Argentina.”
Vorster jumped off with a big thumbs-up after he rang up his 28th win for the year.
“It was a really nice encouraging effort first-up,” said the South African jockey.
“He was still green in the straight but he did a good job in the end. It was nice to see him win first-up and he was quite comfortable in the running.”
