A 20-week break coupled with the booking of bang-in-form apprentice jockey A’Isisuhairi Kasim proved the right formula in the winning comeback of White Coffee on Friday night.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
Trainer Michael Freedman was about to board a Singapore-bound plane in Dubai last Monday morning when assistant-trainer James Peters rang him about the choice of jockeys for this weekend’s racing.
With a seven-hour flight ahead of him, Freedman left the decision in the hands of Peters, who certainly lived up to his boss's trust with his choice of rider for White Coffee in the $55,000 Mexican Rose 20102 Stakes, an Open Benchmark 67 race over 1200m on Polytrack.
“I told James I wouldn’t be back until nine o’clock at night and that he had to pick the riders himself,” said Freedman whose top sprinter Mr Big ran a creditable fifth in the US$1 million Al Quoz Sprint (1000m) last Saturday.
“He could have gone with a senior rider, but in the end he went for Harry, and it proved the right decision. The 3-kilo claim brought his weight down to 53kg and with Harry flying at the moment, it paid off.
“I have to say the horse also enjoys being kept fresh, likes his runs spaced a bit. I noticed that when he was given time off around one or two years back and he won first-up.
“He also likes the six or seven furlong mark and his record on Polytrack is pretty good too.
“He was probably further back than what we wanted in the race, but Harry didn’t panic and rode a patient race on him.”
Settled in a rearward position from the start, the son of Lonhro certainly looked in strife at the 600m, with a wall of horses in front of him and stacks of ground for him to make up.
At the head of affairs, Hard Stuff (Soo Khoon Beng) swept past tiring leader Super Jetset (Mohd Zaki) to hit the front, but a few lengths astern, White Coffee ($25) had found daylight and was sailing home with plenty of purpose on the outside.
After creeping up steadily from a long way out, Solitaire (John Powell) looked like he could upset Freedman’s galloper’s plans when he charged home on the inside, but A’Isisuhairi held his mount together, riding hands and heels to get home in advance of Solitaire by a neck. Imacruiser (Ivaldo Santana) kept on for third place, another 1 ¼ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 11.11secs.
“Mr Freedman told me this horse can be a bit slow at the start and to help him along,” said A’Isisuhairi.
“He jumped fairly, but things did not quite work to plan and we were beaten for speed early. I just had to ride him for luck from that point onwards.
“From the 300m mark, he ran on well and was just too good in the end.”
With that fourth win from 14 starts, White Coffee has now brought his earnings close to the $180,000 mark for the Mummify Stable.
