Dennis and Gael Evans of Newbury Racing could not have wished for a better start to their month long stay in Singapore.
The pair arrived in Singapore on Thursday evening and 24 hours later were on hand at Kranji to see their charge El Perigo win the $55,000 Open Benchmark 67 Stakes over 1600m on Friday night.
The Evans’ have flown in from South Africa to see their Singapore $1 million earner Flax run in the Group 1 Kranji Mile over 1600m on Sunday and will stay through until he runs in the Group 1 Raffles Cup over 1800m on October 27.
Given a nice ride by Corey Brown, El Perigo scored a half-length victory from My Friend Jo (John Powell) with Winning Success (Manoel Nunes) a short-head away third.
“It’s nice to get off to a good start for our stay here in Singapore,” said Dennis Evans. “We flew in last night and we’re here until after Flax runs in the Raffles Cup.
“We’ve got a few runners both here and in South Africa over the weekend, so it was certainly nice to get this win.
“Corey gave the horse a lovely ride as well.”
Brown had El Perigo settled in fifth spot in the run on what was a fairly warm speed. U Got It (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) led the way from Cheetah (Saifudin Ismail) and Winning Success.
There was little change in the order until just before the hometurn where U Got It upped the ante and kicked three lengths clear as Cheetah began to weaken.
It was at this point that Brown elected to move forward on El Perigo and the pair swept up to join in near the 250m mark. He hit the front passing the 200m mark and then had to dig deep to hold off My Friend Jo and Winning Success.
“”I probably got there a bit too soon,” said Brown. “I was following Manoel (Winning Success) and I was hoping he would take me into the race a bit further.
“But I had to go around him and in the end make a long run on him, but he toughed it well as he was there to be beaten on a couple of occasions.”
The victory for El Perigo was his first since October 21 last year, but the gelding did spend almost eight months on the sidelines following surgery.
After finishing second behind The Rude Warrior last December, El Perigo didn’t reappear until July and Friday night’s success was his fourth run back from injury.
“He had a chip removed from a fetlock and needed a good break to get over it,” said winning trainer Cliff Brown.
“I’ve got to thank Dr Dan Shaw from the veterinary department here at the Turf Club for the great job he did.
“Corey gave him a great ride but he came a bit wide on the turn and I thought he might have lost it. Still he was strong all the way to the line and it’s great to have another winner for Dennis and Gael.”
