Trainer David Hill has nothing but high hopes for the unbeaten Cordoba, but is well aware the perfect run is unlikely to stretch further at his comeback race in the $75,000 Class 3 Canada Cup 2014 (1400m) on Friday night.
The half-brother to Hill’s other handy galloper Seasons Echo (both out of Native Nickel) has not raced since dead-heating with Emperor's Banquet in a Class 4 race over 1400m last October, to make it two-from-two following his slashing debut win a month earlier.
This year’s Group 1 Emirates Singapore Derby (2000m) was the race Hill already had in the mix for the UK-bred son of Exceed And Excel who was three-year-old then, but the Englishman did not want to overtax him too early, especially as Northern Hemisphere-breds are worse off than their Southern Hemisphere-bred counterparts being six months younger.
Basically, Hill felt Cordoba was just winning on raw ability, and still had plenty of room for improvement.
“We just couldn’t hold him last time. He pulled very hard,” said Hill.
“We just felt he needed a proper spell after his last race. All we did for a while was to just hand-walk him.
“He’s a lot more relaxed now, but at the same time he’s put on a lot of weight. I don’t weigh my horses, but you can tell he’s a lot stockier now.”
Cordoba will reunite with winning partner Alan Munro in the annual Canada Cup, though his latest barrier trials (fourth and third) had a new pilot doing the steering, Ivaldo Santana. The Brazilian jockey has often teamed up with Hill of late, and remains the only jockey to have won aboard Seasons Echo (three wins).
“I wanted to see if Santana could ride him in the trials as he can be a handful. Santana did a good job, but unfortunately, he is suspended this week and I gave the ride back to Alan,” said Hill who has three winners on the board this year.
“I have also changed the bit on him. I hope he can run more relaxed, but honestly, I think he will need the run.
“We’re aiming bigger for him further down the road as we’re hoping he will be our Derby horse.”
In nine years of training at Kranji, the former Hong Kong-based Hill has saddled only two Singapore Derby runners, Superczar (2008) and Flax (2011), both of whom finished unplaced.
