Lightly-raced gelding Mr Epic made a winning return from surgery when successful in the $65,000 Penang Turf Club trophy over 1200m on the Polytrack on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
Ridden by Barend Vorster, Mr Epic ran his rivals ragged before scoring a two length victory over Cheetah On Fire (Soo Khoon Beng) with Rough Day (Danny Beasley) a half-length back in third placed.
Mr Epic recorded a winning time of 1 min 12.47 secs.
Mr Epic and Notipsnotips (Mohd Zaki) applied the pressure from the outset with Notipsnotips holding a slender lead coming off the back with Rough Day and Cheetah On Fire next in Line.
Turning for home Vorster slipped Mr Epic some more rein and the gelding quickly opened up a winning break and passing the 200m held a four length lead over the chasing pack.
It was a good training performance by Baertschiger to have Mr Epic win first up following a last start second back in early November.
“He had to go off and have surgery,” said Baertschiger. “He had bone chips removed from both front fetlocks.
“He had been hanging out in his races so we thought there had to be a problem.
“He’s come back well. He had two good trials and we were confident of him running a good race today.
“I wasn’t too happy when he got softened up early in the race, but he gave a good kick turning for home and Barend kept him going all the way to the line.
“I think he’s also going to get some benefit from the win and hopefully he can win again.”
Vorster said he was impressed with the victory of Mr Epic who gave him a good kick when he asked.
“Once the other horse (Notipsnotips) got a head in front of him I just asked him to relax and he came back underneath me,” said Vorster.
“I think having that horse outside of him helped him as he had shown that he can hang as he did last time in.
“When I asked him for a kick on the hometurn he quickened up nicely and I was confident that he would be able to hold them off from there.
“He’s got a nice big action and what I liked about him was that he kept it all going all the way to the line.”
A four-year-old New Zealand-bred by Falkirk from the Marju mare Marzeri, Mr Epic was a NZ$180,000 purchase as a two-year-old.
From his four starts, which has seen a win and one minor placing, Mr Epic has returned owners CK & HC Stable around $47,000 in prizemoney.
Vorster landed a double for the afternoon when he combined with the Michael Freedman-trained Super Good to take out the final event on the programme - the $55,000 Class 4 Stakes over 1200m.
The victory also brought up the 50th winner for the season for Freedman, placing him just one behind Stephen Burridge in the race for the Trainer's Premiership.
