The South African partnership of trainer Patrick Shaw and jockey Barend Vorster once again delivered the goods with a winning double as Emperor’s Banquet took out the $75,000 Class 3 race over 1400m on Sunday.
Priced at $23, the four-year-old bay gelding produced a battling display to beat Indicio (Lisa Allpress) by a length in a winning time of 1min 24.10secs with Measin (Danny Beasley) a further length-and-a-half behind in third.
It was the son of Holy Roman Emperor’s third win from five starts since arriving from Australia last April and reinforced Vorster’s belief that his compatriot Shaw, who was still holidaying back home but represented by his assistant-trainers Ricardo Le Grange and Jacci de Tert, had landed a potential star in the making.
“He was a class above the rest of the field and it showed today,” said Vorster, who has been astride Emperor’s Banquet in his previous four outings in Kranji
Even being drawn at the outermost lane was not going to stop his mount who ran in a handy position behind early leader Benji's Empire (Matthew Kellady) before slugging it out with Indicio as they approached the winning post.
“It was a bad barrier and he was pushed wide for much of the race. We were probably three deep but he took it all in his stride,” said Vorster.
“Once we got to the straight he just kept finding and finding. He pushed on very easily and responded very well.
“He’s still a bit green and was leaning in but once I hit him on the left side he straightened out nicely.”
The Johannesburg native celebrated an early season brace, having saluted earlier in the evening aboard Two M And M. It was his third victory from three race meetings, all partnering Shaw-trained gallopers.
“It shows the good work done by the stable,” he said. “They did a lot of work during the holidays and it’s paid off nicely for us.”
In total, Emperor’s Banquet has now won four times from 13 starts in Australia and Singapore and has surpassed the $100,000 mark in stakes earnings for the Tmen Stable.
