Leading apprentice A’Isisuhairi “Harry” Kasim notched a personal landmark on Sunday when he rode his 100th Kranji winner, driving Angry Cat across the line to claim the Auckland Racing Club Trophy.
Travelling well off the blistering pace set by early frontrunner Lady Roulette (Leong Yoon Fei), the Australian-bred gelding turned on the afterburners at the top of the straight to motor past the leading pack to win the $60,000 Class 4 race over 1000m.
He eventually prevailed by a length-and-a-half over Yin Jie (Soo Khoon Beng) with Rory (Joseph See) a head away in third. The winning time on the Polytrack was a brisk 59.95secs.
It has been a frustrating time of late for the Malaysian rookie, who claimed last year’s apprentice title with a record-breaking 73 winners, but was coming up short in his bid to crack the century of wins in Singapore.
After landing his 99th winner on August 31, it seemed only a matter of time before the New Zealand-trained hoop would reach his milestone moment but the wait, with six runners-up placing and a third this month alone, had started to play on A’Isisuhairi’s mind.
“It’s been a while to get my 100th, especially with quite a few placings, and I was really wondering when it was going to happen,” he said. “I knew one day it would come and I’m just so pleased that I’ve finally managed to get that winner.”
While he was booting home winners last year at a spectacular rate, helped by his 3kg claim, as he smashed Benny Woodworth’s 1995 record of 56 wins, the trips to the winner’s circle this year have been fewer after his claim was reduced to just 1kg.
“Last year with the big claim I had a lot of support from a lot of trainers and owners but this year the quality of my rides has not been as good as before but it only makes me work harder,” said A’Isisuhairi.
It has meant this year’s premiership race is a much closer affair, though he still leads the apprentice log with 26 victories, three ahead of his closest rival Noh Senari, who pulled to within two in the very next race when the Singaporean hoop drove Cheetah On Fire to an upset victory in the Phumelela International Trophy, a $100,000 Open Benchmark 83 race over 2200m.
But there was no denying A’Isisuhairi his crowning moment and trainer Alwin Tan was effusive in his praise after watching the Kelantan-native deliver an unexpected victory for his stable.
“It was a big surprise considering the short distance and the wide barrier,” said the Singaporean conditioner, whose early afternoon (he had just two runners in the 11-card meeting) ended on a high.
The chestnut galloper, drawn at the widest gate at barrier 12, had not saluted in 240 days and this was just his fifth attempt over the five-furlong dash, with no success at his previous four outings.
“But Harry gave him a great ride and followed my instructions perfectly.”
A’Isisuhairi later admitted that he had been a little loose with the orders, as the initial speed of the race and the hard-running tone caught him by surprise and he had to make adjustments as Angry Cat ($49) started slowly.
“He’s a smart horse and they wanted me to go forward if possible but the pace was too hard and I felt it was better to let him travel how he wanted to save him for the top of the straight.
“Thankfully it worked and the other horses ran out of gas, probably from going really hard at the start, and he kicked away so well along the straight to get the win for me.”
A five-year-old by Estambul out of Philliann, Angry Cat has now won four times from 32 starts and has collected just shy of $260,000 in prizemoney for Tan.
