Former Victorian sprinter Sun Dream came off the lucky beneficiary and survivor of a drama-packed Race 3 where nearly half the field nearly got wiped out on Sunday.
The scary-looking incident occurred barely 100m into the $60,000 Magneto 2014 Stakes, a Class 4 race over 1100m on Polytrack when Double Cash (Mohd Zaki) came crossing too quickly from his wide barrier, smashing against four runners on his inside, favourite Safeer (Oscar Chavez), Gran Torino (Olivier Placais), Satellite Man (Peter Ho), Luminiff Lad (Chan Wei Sheng) and Lively Dragon (Pregasam Dellorto).
The horse who came off the worst from that early scrimmage was the one right on the inside, Safeer who unfortunately turned into a crash test dummy for the occasion when he was seen copping the full impact and pushing the elasticity of the PVC running rails – and robustness of Chavez’s left boot - to its very limit.
By miracle, no horse or jockey came to grief, but the race was all but over for the five victims of that serious interference.
Amidst all the chaos, one horse was able to steer clear of trouble – Sun Dream, who was known as China Dream in Melbourne where he registered one solitary win over 1200m at Pakenham at his second last start before being shipped to Singapore for owner Cheng Ting Kong and trainer Desmond Koh.
Sun Dream ($35) was at the moment of the fracas five wide, therefore spared the path of destruction Double Cash left behind. No doubt Wong must have thanked his lucky stars but that was only half the battle won as he still had to hope the new conveyance under him would show enough poise and qualities to go and score on debut.
That scenario did eventuate as Double Cash and Lively Dragon petered out upon straightening, leaving the coast clear for Sun Dream, who straightaway raced away to a massive lead which was only whittled down late to 1 ¾ lengths by Gran Torino. Soldado (John Powell) ran third another half-length away.
The end of the race was not without some unusual mishaps either. Lively Dragon parted company with his rider upon pulling up while Mikcaipho (Saifudin Ismail) returned dehydrated.
A four-year-old by Snitzel, Sun Dream ran the 1100m on the Polytrack in 1min 5.4secs.
“On his work and his Australian form, I thought he had a chance today. He’s a horse with ability but you have to manage him as he came with a few niggling problems, leg issues mainly,” said Koh.
“I’ve given him all the time in the world, given him all the necessary procedures, to come right. Once that was done, we had to start looking for a race for him.
“He’s definitely a horse with ability, but I think I will stick to sprints for now.”
