Champion jockey Joao Moreira knocked in yet another double when the odds-on favourite California Eagle took out the $65,000 Novice Stakes over 1000m on Friday night.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
Jumping straight to the front and taking full advantage of his light impost, California Eagle scored a two length victory from Flag Of Command (Shafiq Rizuan) with Oriental Pearl (Greg Cheyne) three lengths back in third spot.
California Eagle stopped the clock at 58.55 secs for the 1000m journey.
Moreira took out the opening race on the program, the $35,000 Open Benchmark 53 Stakes aboard the Mark Walker-trained Coup Da Vinci giving the champion jockey his 47th winner for the 2013 season which is just into its third month.
At roughly the same stage during the 2012 season, Moreira had posted 54 winners for the year.
Moreira said California Eagle had been well handle by trainer David Kok and said he was a little surprised by the time the US-bred three-year-old clocked.
He said keeping California Eagle to the shorter sprint trips at this stage of his career was the perfect outcome for the colt.
“At this stage I just think 1200m might be a bit too far for him,” said Moreira.
“But he was so strong to the line tonight I don’t think an extra 100m would be any worry for him.
“I didn’t expect him to clock that sort of time, so it was a good strong win even though he had such a light weight.
“He has a lot of pace and he used that tonight. The other horse (Flag Of Command) didn’t put a lot of pressure on and when I asked him to quicken in the straight he lengthened his stride really well.
“David had him 110% for this race. He has so much speed and David is doing the right thing by keeping him to these sprint races at this stage.
“It would not have mattered who rode him tonight, he would have won just as easily.”
California Eagle was lining-up for his fourth start on Friday night. After leading, he knocked-up to finish fourth on debut over 1200m before coming out and finishing second in a Restricted Maiden over 1100m in November.
After a short break and dropped to 1000m, California Eagle broke his maiden status in winning a Restricted Maiden over 1000m on February 1.
California Eagle is by Whywhywhy from Japon and is raced by the California Stable.
