​Champion sprinter Rocket Man landed his fourth straight win in Singapore's biggest domestic sprint – the Group 1 $500,000 Lion City Cup over 1200m on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The Patrick Shaw-trained galloper won his first Lion City Cup as a three-year-old in 2009 and has been undefeated in the race in the three subsequent years.
In fact Rocket Man is undefeated on the local domestic scene with his only defeats in Singapore coming in the Group 1 KrisFlyer International Sprint in 2009 and 2010, while the 2012 edition over 1200m will be run on May 20.
Sent out the $5.30 favourite, Rocket Man, under the guidance of Felix Coetzee, led throughout in scoring by two-and-three-quarter lengths over Better Be The One (Joao Moreira) with Mr Big (Stephen Baster) three-quarters-of-a-length away third.
Rocket Man, who was eased down in the concluding stages by Coetzee, recorded 1min 10.44 secs on the good rated track.
Rocket Man jumped straight to the front and after some pressure from Northern Lion (Ivaldo Santana) in the early stages was able to then comfortably find the lead and control the tempo after 400m.
Coming around the hometurn Coetzee gave Rocket Man a little more rein and the gelding quickly opened up a margin on the chasing pack which was whittled down late by Better Be The One.
Shaw said it was a “relief” to get the Lion City Cup out of the way after having some anxious moments over the last two weeks.
“He's had a minor hiccup over the last couple of weeks,” said Shaw. “He's had a ligament niggle that has restricted us working him the way we would want.
“He's been constantly monitored by the vets here at the Turf Club and I have to say a big thank you to all of them for all their hard work on the horse.
“He's going to be fitter for the KrisFlyer in three weeks time. We just couldn't press as hard as I wanted in the lead-up to this race.
“He only had the one trial since he came back from Dubai just over three weeks ago.
“He'll undergo all the x-rays and have a scan before the KrisFlyer. We'll do everything that we always do with him leading up to a big race.
“But first of all we have to see how he pulls up from this race before pressing on with him.
“If ever a horse deserves a bronze statue at the Singapore Turf Club then Rocket Man should be the one.
“I don't think we'll ever see a horse win the one race four times again, especially at weight-for-age.”
Owner Fred Crabbia said he gets an enormous amount of pleasure out of watching Rocket Man who landed his 20th career victory in the Lion City Cup.
“He's a superstar,” said Crabbia. “He's everything a man could wish for in a horse.
“That was a nice prep run for the race in three weeks time and I was very happy with how Felix handled him.
“When Felix had the race won he just eased up on him in the final stages.
“We just hope that he has a faultless run up to the big one in three weeks time and he can again produce his best form.”
Crabbia said he was always confident that Rocket Man would again be able to reach the heights he did of early 2011 after a disappointing end to the year.
“He had quite a bit of travel last year,” said Crabbia. “He didn't enjoy the trip to Japan (when fourth in the Sprinters Stakes) and maybe we should have missed that race and concentrated on Hong Kong.
“I always knew that he would make it back to the top level and I can never be disappointed with this horse.”
Coetzee said Rocket Man was jumping from the gates better than ever which was making his job all that much easier.
“He's jumping faster these days,” said Coetzee. “That puts you right in the race from the outset.
“I have to say that his condition looks better than what it did in Dubai and I'm sure he's going to continue to keep improving with the KrisFlyer now three weeks away.
“He's a great horse and gives you very confidence during a race.”
A six-year-old by Viscount from the Mr McGinty mare Macrosa, Rocket Man, with five second placings on top of his 20 victories from 27 starts, took his prizemoney to $6.7 million for Crabbia with his victory on Sunday.
