Lightly-raced sprinter Bahen showed boundless resilience to score in a four-way thriller under a perfect ride from regular partner John Powell on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
Not seen since his first-up win from a four-month spell last October, the Tale Of The Cat five-year-old had to dig deep into his reserve to hold off the challenges of the late swoopers led by Good Loouken (Alan Munro), Video Call (Saifudin Ismail) and Seize The Day (Saimee Jumaat) and hold a slender head advantage from Good Loouken on the line.
Video Call who burst through the pack at the 200m looked like he was coming in with the biggest head of steam, but had to settle for third another head away while Seize The Day peaked on his run in the last 50m to finish fourth another head away. The winning time was 1min 12.29secs.
Bahen, who races in the pink and red colours of trainer Shane Baertschiger’s mother Sally, has now recorded four wins from six starts and stakes earnings close to the $150,000 mark.
Parked behind the speed in fifth by Powell, Bahen ($17 favourite) travelled comfortably throughout before he was peeled out for his run at the top of the straight. Early leader Jet Ace (Greg Cheyne) quickly vanished from the race but Super Good (Stephen Baster) stuck on well while Swagger (Davy Bonilla) who was caught three deep throughout was also still in the firing line.
Bahen, however, seemed to have them safely held as he plugged on manfully to the line, but his time in the lead looked all but over when the backmarkers descended on him. Powell did not give up, though, and the pair knuckled down to the task to cross the line first in a blanket finish.
Baertschiger said Bahen, who was the topweight (57.5kg) in the 12-horse field has again proven his never-say-die attitude inside the last two furlongs.
“He’s such a fighter. When the chips are down and the other horses come breathing down his neck, he is just so hard to get past,” said Baertschiger.
“It’s even more remarkable today as he was giving so much weight around. JP (Powell) rode him to plan as we wanted to sit off the speed and he got a nice smother from behind.
“I like to space his runs out and I will now set him for a Polytrack Class 2 race over 1200m on 16 December.”
