Two months after securing his first Group win, the vastly-improved Trudeau suddenly has two such features to his name when he took out the $350,000 Group 2 EW Barker Trophy (1400m) on Sunday.
A decent sprinter-miler who began his racing career in Australia before coming to Singapore via Malaysia, Trudeau had not really been regarded as Group winning material until he sprang an upset $308 win in the Group 3 Garden City Trophy (1200m) on September 15.
Trainer Bruce Marsh then targeted him for Sunday’s handicap race, knowing he had a high chance of getting in at a low weight. With the highest-rated entry Mr Big (58kg) standing on 115 points and the next best (Makkura) being 16 points (eight kilos) behind, all the other eight runners were therefore allotted the luxury minimum weight of 50kg.
As expected, Mr Big flew out of the gates to show the way for new partner Manoel Nunes before going on to steady up the pace, ahead of race-favourite and stablemate Holy Empire (Alan Munro), hence giving trainer Michael Freedman the early control of the race.
Taking advantage of barrier No 1, A’Isisuhairi was happy to follow in third on the fence, waiting for the right moment to launch his challenge.
The rest of the pack was fairly bunched up with the only three-year-old in the nine-horse field, Daniel (Corey Brown) and Hot Gold (Shafiq Rizuan) bringing up the rear only about three lengths behind.
Upfront, Mr Big was not showing any signs of letting up as he rounded the home turn with seemingly plenty of petrol left in the tank. But the massive pull in weights soon told as, despite Nunes’ urgings, the valiant son of Elusive Quality could not run away from the chasing pack.
At that moment, Holy Empire was materialising as the biggest threat as he dashed past Mr Big with relative ease, more so when Trudeau ($58) was running into dead ends on the rails right behind Mr Big.
But once A’Isisuhairi was able to switch the Arexevan Racing Stable-owned gelding across the heels of Holy Empire into clear galloping room, he immediately stretched out gamely to gather in the favourite and cross the line first.
Holy Empire ran second three parts of a length behind while Mr Big weakened late, but still held on for third another 2 ¼ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 21.26secs for the 1400m on the Long Course.
The letdown of the race was Daniel, who never made his presence felt at any stage of the race, to run last, more than 10 lengths astern.
While the members of the Arexevan Racing Stable, who are known for their exuberance whenever they lead in a winner, were even more vocal than usual given their first Group 2 win had just come their way, someone else was soaking in the momentous occasion - 'Harry' A’Isisuhairi, who had just sealed his first Group success to cap his meteoric rise to the top.
“I’ve won a couple of Listed races in New Zealand, but it’s a Group race that I’ve always wanted to win - and I’m so rapt I’ve finally done it,” said the boom apprentice jockey.
“I’ve been the leading apprentice here for a while now, but only had a few opportunities in Group races, and no luck up to now.
“But I was always confident my day will come. It didn’t matter if it was a Group 1, 2 or 3, it’s just winning one that counts.
“When Mr Marsh gave me the ride on this horse, I was quite confident as I know he was very impressive at his last win.
“He put himself in the right spot from the start and was always travelling very well. Mr Marsh just asked me to leave him alone where he felt comfortable.
“I only had to follow Holy Empire throughout. He took a while to find daylight, but once I asked him, he kicked away very well.”
Marsh said the penny had only really dropped for Trudeau after he was gelded.
