First Choice lived up to his name when he emerged at the thicker end of the prizemoney in a three-way thriller on Tuesday night.
Under the cosh from the get-go, the well-supported son of Love Conquers All (Barend Vorster) certainly showed plenty of mettle, especially over the whole length of the Kranji straight.
The meat in the sandwich between My Horse (Nooresh Juglall) and Unconquered (Glen Boss) from the backstretch till the point of the turn, the Theo Kieser-trained First Choice ($12) seemed to thrive under pressure.
As he poked his head in front and kept finding, both My Horse and Unconquered would not let him slip away, even looking on the cusp of passing him any second, but Kieser’s game little chestnut somehow hit the line first, scraping home by a short head from My Horse with Unconquered third another head away.
The winning time was 59.48 seconds for the 1000m on the Polytrack.
Kieser said that despite the hard run the horse raced by one of his staunchest supporters, the RX Stable, had to endure, he was confident he could prevail.
“Barend rode a tremendous race. The plan was to go forward and sit second or third,” said the South African handler.
“He was travelling really good even under pressure and he fought very well.”
Vorster said First Choice stood out as his target ride the moment the handicaps came out last week.
“I was quick on the ride when I saw his light weight (52kgs). He was in a lovely condition and strode beautifully in the race,” said the lightweight hoop.
“He’s quite a small horse, but he dug down deep. Once he strode half-a-length in front, he just kept finding.”
As for the $11 favourite Walking Thunder (Alan Munro), he drew one but could not muster speed to settle at the rear in the initial stages. He did improve from the 600m, but he stayed rather one-paced behind the three main protagonists to finish fourth, about one length and a quarter off the winner.
After scoring the last of his two previous wins three starts back in Class 4 Premier company, First Choice lost no marks at his next two runs in Class 3 before getting lucky at his third try.
He has now brought up close to $140,000 in prizemoney for the RX Stable.
