Eastiger made full use of his abundance of speed as well as barrier one to post his maiden win at his sixth start on Friday night.
At his second race following his sixth place off a wide trip at his first-up run in a Restricted Maiden race over 1000m on February 23, the Magic Albert three-year-old sprang the gates to take charge of the $85,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1200m, and stayed in that commanding position right through.
From the pack, Wecando (Glen Boss) gave chase with great determination inside the last 200m, but Eastiger ($32) had the race all stitched up as he went on to open his account by two lengths from Stephen Gray’s newcomer.
The resuming Fusion Power (Noh Senari) ran third another 1 ½ lengths away. Ridden by Vlad Duric for the first time, Eastiger clocked 1min 10.45secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
Winning trainer Lee Freedman said Eastiger was still work in progress but should be headed in the right direction now that first win was out of the way.
“An apprentice rode him first-up and he was caught wide. He was very tired in the end, that did not quite work out,” said the Australian conditioner.
“To be fair, he was probably not quite ready, but second-up, he was fitter and the plan was to lead from barrier No 1. He was ridden with great confidence by Vlad as well.
“I think that’s the way to ride him going forward. He’s certainly got a lot of natural speed.”
With that 18th win, Duric was cementing his driving seat in the Singapore jockeys’ premiership, increasing his lead by two wins from Michael Rodd.
“We were able to enjoy a cheap lead. He was a fit horse and he duly won,” said the 2017 Singapore champion jockey.
“The way the race panned out suited him. We had full control of the race from the get-go and he was just too good.”
Eastiger is raced by emerging Thai owners King Power Stable, who have already combined with Freedman for three previous winners this year – two with Augustano and one with Bangkok Boy.
A multiple-champion trainer in Melbourne, Freedman is slowly but surely climbing his way up the Singapore log at his first full year. He now shares the same number of winners as last year’s champion Mark Walker and Shane Baertschiger on 12 winners, but remains in fifth place on a countback for seconds.
