Leading apprentice jockey Troy See got the perfect send-off to Korea after he rode a timely double on Friday night with Per Inpower and Lim’s Force.
It could have been a hat-trick of wins but Classified just got beaten a neck by Ladrone in the last race, the $45,000 Class 4 Non Premier race over 1100m.
See headed straight to Changi Airport right after that race to catch his flight to Seoul, to ride Maximus for trainer Alwin Tan in the 1 billion won Group 1 Keeneland Korea Cup (1800m) on Sunday.
The son of Lemon Drop Kid is Singapore’s sole representative in the field of 15, made up of 10 Korean horses and four other international horses from Japan (last year’s winner London Town) the UK (Forest Ranger), Ireland (Riven Light) and Dubai (Ennobled Friend).
The Kuah Cheng Tee-trained Per Inpower ($38) was slow away at his second start on, ending up last in the nine-horse field of the $85,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1200m.
As Qiji Commander (Craig Grylls) led, See ensured the three-year old gelding plotted a ground-saving journey at the rear.
But with a wall of horses in front of them approaching the turn, they had to circle the field in search of daylight. $19 favourite Super Win (Oliver Placais) looked well on his way to a winning debut when he raced past Axel (Vlad Duric) at the 200m, but Per Inpower was also starting to pull away from Ricardo Le Grange’s newcomer Gold Prize (Alan Munro) on his outside.
Well ridden by See, Per Inpower outsprinted his rivals, beating Gold Prize by a neck, with Axel third another one-and-three-quarter lengths away and Super Win fourth another neck away. The winning time was 1min 12.67secs for the 1200m on Polytrack.
See was incidentally bringing up his first win for Kuah, a trainer he seldom rides for.
“I have ridden a few times for CT, but this is our first winner together,” said See.
“Thanks to the trainer and the Strong Stable owners for putting me on this horse.
“He is very easy to ride, but he was slow at the start, so he dropped to last.
“I let him run on the inside to save some ground. Turning into the straight, I tried to let him go in between horses, but the gap closed up, so we had to come around horses.
“When he saw the gap, he started to make up ground. This horse can definitely go further, but you need to give him a while more as he was very green and was looking around in the race.”
Lim’s Force ($35) made See’s night even better with a second win in the $38,000 Kranji Stakes D race Division 1 over 1200m, bringing up his current win tally to 22 wins.
“We did not plan to lead, but she (Lim’s Force) jumped so well,” said See.
“It’s nice to get another win. I just came back from a suspension last week (two racedays for careless riding), and my weight went up to 58kg, so I had to work hard to lose some weight.
“I’m kind of tired now, but I’m looking forward to the ride in Korea on Sunday.”
The five-year-old mare by Foxwedge is at her second win in seven starts for trainer Steven Burridge and the Lim’s Stable.
