With the upgrade in class against some of Singapore's sprinting heavyweights, many thought Emperor Max would be hard-pushed to maintain his unbeaten run, but the popular galloper again rose to the occasion to score his fifth win from as many starts at Kranji on Sunday.
Coming off a four-in-a-row not everybody had really expected in the first place, including his trainer Stephen Gray, the valiant son of Holy Roman Emperor was not only taking on stellar names like Mr Big, Goal Keeper and Red Beard, to name a few, but more dauntingly, running in the race picked as 2013 juvenile champion War Affair’s racing comeback after a four-month break.
But a scorching pace at the head of affairs and another inspired ride from regular partner Lisa Allpress paved the way for another resounding success for Emperor Max, who was backed down to $11 favouritism. War Affair, who was sent out as the second-elect ($14), did poke his head at the 300m, but the lack of fitness eventually told as Gray’s charge kept hitting the line strongly to hold his gallant challenger off by 1 ¼ lengths.
The ever-courageous Mr Big (Noh Senari), who was caught three deep in the early speed battle, hung on for third another 2 ½ lengths away, no doubt expected to come on from that run.
With the leaders going like last month’s pay, it was not surprising that Emperor Max, who had 52kgs on his back, on level terms with War Affair (Danny Beasley), stopped the clock at a blistering 1min 9.01secs, only 0.01 second outside the four-year-old Long Course record established by Mexican Rose, who had 51kgs on her back then.
Gray was almost pinching himself as he soaked in the new instalment to a dream run from a former Victorian galloper who started his Kranji career at Class 4 level with unpretentious ambitions, but has taken the next step-up every time the bar was raised.
“I couldn’t be confident going into the race with so many good horses in it,” said the Kiwi conditioner.
“But this horse keeps improving all the time. He has kept answering every question we have asked him.
“We just wanted to go out there and see how he went. To be fair, he was the fitter older horse with a lot more racing experience than the three-year-old (War Affair) while Mr Big was also fresh-up.
“The way he won today told me he has a bit of class, which is amazing given he came to us as a Class 4 galloper. The fast clip suited him as he’s a horse who can be a bit keen.
“It’s hard to get horses like him, this is what every trainer lives for. We all dream of training a good horse, and when one like him comes along, I guess I can say it’s my turn now.”
Allpress said she would have liked to be a little closer to the early pace when Emperor Max was at one stage as far back as six lengths off the leading duo of Goal Keeper and Mr Big, but she bided her time and was repaid for her patience in the end.
“They went really quick in front. I didn’t want to get too far behind, and when Corey (Brown aboard Yin Xin in third) eased a bit, I was able to get closer,” said the Kiwi jockey.
“When he came back underneath me, it was just an amazing feeling and he just quickened away.
“He’s part of the family now. Everybody just loves him and it’s not just about me, but also all the good work done by the syces and everybody at the stable.
“It was also great to have my mum around. She planned her trip around Emperor Max and she will go home tonight having celebrated that win with us.”
While Gray had been all along loath to map out any more grandiose plans with the Hong Kong-owned galloper (raced by anaesthetist Dr Gordon Yau), such an unblemished record after five local runs had him starting to toy with a semblance of a bigger target.
“We’ll just carry on and enjoy it, but I suppose I could run him in one of those Weight-for-Age races. There are a couple of them coming up over 1200m,” said Gray.
“He could also run in the better sprint races like the Kranji Sprint (April 4). He’s a big horse and I have to keep him going.
“Time will tell how good he really is. I guess at some stage he should head towards those sprinting races and measure up to the better ones.”
As an afterthought, Gray finally dropped a more daring hint towards the Holy Grail.
“I guess we could look at the KrisFlyer. Dreams do come true, don’t they?” he said.
The $1 million International Group 1 KrisFlyer International Sprint (1200m) is the pinnacle of the sprinting races at Kranji and is run on May 18.
Beasley was far from disappointed with War Affair’s second place at his first run, adamant the now Alwin Tan-trained son of O’Reilly would strip fitter from that run and it could only be onwards and upwards towards his main agenda, the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge.
“I was very happy with his run. It was an outstanding run considering he was a little rusty,” said the Australian jockey, who was at his first race ride aboard the Warplan Racing Stable-owned gelding.
“He was a little slow out of the gates and they went at a quick tempo. I would have liked to be closer to Lisa’s horse as he was the horse to beat.
“Turning for home, he lengthened up really good and for a while, I thought he could win. But unfortunately, Lisa’s horse was quickening at the same rate as us and we were not able to peg him back.
“In the end the fitness ran out, but my horse will definitely improve from that first run. To me, he remains the horse to beat in the 3YO series.”
