Trainer David Kok may not be a regular visitor at the winner's stall, but he had every reason to punch the air in delight when his only runner for the day, Bullet Fly, ran home a winner on the biggest day of the Singapore season.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The US-bred three-year-old by After Market served notice of his ability at debut in a Restricted Maiden race on April 22 with a fourth place to Lucky Xuan, and duly stepped up on that effort with a convincing win in Sunday's $65,000 Singapore Airlines A380 London Stakes, another race for Restricted Maiden 2 & 3YO's, run over 1200m on turf, one of the nine supporting races to the Singapore Airlines International Cup and KrisFlyer International Sprint.
Kok's confidence in the Spade Stable-owned gelding grew when he scored a barrier trial win last week, but was thrown a dampener when he drew barrier 15.
His worries however deepened further on raceday when jockey Saimee Jumaat was stood down on medical grounds. But when he found out Azhar Ismail, the first rider he had originally booked for the ride, was available, he had no hesitation in reinstating the top Malaysian hoop for the job.
Azhar, who has been in a rich vein of luck at his recent travels down the Causeway, landing the top prize aboard Pitstop in the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe (1200m) last Friday, certainly made the most of the pick-up ride.
Though the last-minute pairing was trapped wide for most of the 1200m journey, the win was in their keeping following an early move four wide from the 800m to creep up right on the heels of race-leader Select Gathering (Opie Bosson) at the point of turn.
With the better momentum driving him forward, the American gelding gradually wore down Bosson's mount to get the upperhand at the 200m before pulling away for a convincing 1 ¼ length win over the fast-finishing Smart Idea (Joao Moreira) who pipped Select Gathering by a nose. The winning time was 1min 11.55secs.
“It's a nice feeling to win on SIA Cup day, more so when he was my only runner,” said Kok.
“This horse was bought by the owner in America and has always shown us promise from the first day he arrived. He ran well at debut but I felt he needed a stronger jockey.
“For his second run today, I actually chose Azhar first, but then the owner went for Saimee instead. But when Saimee was stood down, I thought I would bring Azhar back on him.
“It's good Azhar's finally won one for me as we've had many seconds and thirds before.
“I was very confident before the race as the horse won a trial last week, but there was a concern about his wide draw.
“He's still not fully mature, but as he grows further, I think he will win some more races in the future.”
Azhar agreed with the young Singaporean handler saying the horse won on raw talent on Sunday.
“He's a nice horse. I didn't know the horse but though he was wide for most of the way, he was always travelling well,” said Azhar.
“But as I didn't want to be caught wide throughout the race, I decided to move early and get closer to the lead.
“In the home straight, he just kept kicking for a very nice win.”
