After a long run of outs, Robin Hood bounced back to the winner’s circle in style in the $80,000 Class 3 race over 1400m on Friday night.
The Nom Du Jeu six-year-old had slipped under the radar since his last win which came more than a year ago in a Benchmark 83 race over 1700m.
He has mixed his form since, so much so his ratings had dropped from 76 points to 72 points, effectively representing a nine-point drop given all Kranji-based horses were given a hike of five points at the turn of the new season.
But that old dash and fighting spirit that marked his previous five wins was back to the fore on Friday night as apprentice Noh Senari brought him to a striking position at the 300m.
Once he put a space of two lengths between him and the chasing pack, the race was all but sewn up.
Robin Hood went on to post a 1 ¾-length win from Southern Spur (Wong Chin Chuen) with Supernova (Vlad Duric) third another neck away. The winning time was 1min 21.94secs for the 1400m on the Long Course.
Tan was at a race-to-race double as one race earlier, Happy Saga (see earlier report) also showed the old guard could still be counted on to keep the home fires burning for the 2016 Singapore champion trainer.
Tan said the double, which has incidentally taken him to seventh place on the log, has come as a timely relief, but he was under no illusions it would still be a big ask to replicate his annus mirabilis of 2016.
“We’re having a tough year. In the last couple of weeks, we had no winners and on Kranji Mile night, we drew another blank,” said the Singaporean handler ruefully.
“It’s good to see two of my older horses win and what’s even more pleasing, they are both for one of my most loyal owners, Mr Chua Kang Lim.
“He showed good patience with both horses, especially with Robin Hood, who tonight, was in the right class and on the right distance.
“The boy (Noh) also did a good job, just like Amirul (Ismadi) earlier on Happy Saga. These boys can deliver when you give them the right tools.”
Noh, who was snapping his own lean spell, having not greeted the judge since the Hideyuki Takaoka-trained Heavenly Hand won on March 15, actually thought he was heading home empty-handed again when he was legged-up aboard the $113 longshot, who was the last of his four rides for the night.
More so when in the previous race, he dropped his whip aboard the well-backed Smart Racer, who was in the end well beaten.
“I thought things couldn’t get any worse after I dropped the whip earlier. I was kalang kabut (panicking in Malay), ” said Noh.
“I didn’t expect this one (Robin Hood) to win, but he was back to his best tonight. He was always travelling nicely for me and kicked clear very well on the Long Course.
“Thank you to the team for getting this horse back to his best and putting me on.”
With that sixth win in 31 starts, Robin Hood has now amassed more than $300,000 in prizemoney for the Eight Eight One Stable.
