A patient ride by Oscar Chavez saw Shaqraa swoop down on the outside to record a soft win in the $60,000 Class 4 race over 1000m on Friday night.
Not the soundest of horses, Shaqraa occupied a rearward spot for most of the speed dash before making a late run right on the outside to put paid to last-start winner Lim’s Sincere (Zawari Razali) who looked home and hosed on the rails at the 100m.
The punters were spot-on in their calculations. Sent out as the third-elect at $28, Shaqraa scored with 1 ¼ lengths to spare from second-favourite ($27) Lim’s Sincere while $14 favourite The Cosmos (Vlad Duric) had to settle for third place another neck away. The winning time was 58.39 seconds for the 1000m on the Polytrack.
A five-year-old by Fully Fledged, Shaqraa was at his second win in 11 starts, with the first one coming off at his first run for trainer Shane Baertschiger shortly after transferring from Mark Walker.
“He has a funny action, even after he had knee surgery. He always seems to be going through the pain barrier,” said Baertschiger.
“But he’s been pretty a consistent horse for us and I’m glad to see him return to winning ways tonight.”
Shaqraa is owned by the Al-Arabiya Stable, who often puts jockey Oscar Chavez on their horses, even if it means he has to put in the hard yards to meet the weight.
“I had to lose 2.5 kilos to make the weight (51kgs). It was all worth it,” said the Panamanian-born jockey.
“Things are going well for me this year but it helps when you get good support from owners like the Al-Arabiya Stable, and you need to get on good horses, too.
“Credit to Shane for preparing this horse well for this race. He told me to settle at the rear and take him to the outside for one last crack at them in the straight and luckily, things went exactly like that.”
With that second success, Shaqraa has now brought his stakes earnings past the $85,000 mark for Mr Mansoor Gandhi of Al-Arabiya Stable.
“I’ve had a lot of seconds and it’s great to get a winner, especially this one as he had surgery,” said Mansoor.
“Well done to Shane and Oscar, what a cool ride!”
Chaves was again at his coolest best in a different register when he took $104 longshot Sugartime Jazz to an emphatic all-the-way win for trainer Daniel Meagher in the next event, the $35,000 Class 5 race over 1700m on Polytrack.
