It’s taken a little over a year but Rising Empire could not have picked a more auspicious time to finally score his first win for trainer Desmond Koh on Sunday.
The former Group 3 winner was one of six horses Koh bought in a dispersal sale after Malaysian trainer Wee Meng Hua gave up training in early 2014.
To say that the package turned out to be a good deal would be seeing life through rose-coloured glasses. Of the batch which Koh also wholly owns, only Knight Spirit has saluted with the Singaporean handler saddling him to three wins, while Congo Zandor (ex King Empire), Guaricana (ex Snow Flame), Harden Up and Sarawi have still not brought any returns on their purchase tags, but Rising Empire, a former top juvenile for trainer Leticia Dragon when he claimed the Group 3 Juvenile Championship (1200m), has now joined Knight Spirit.
The son of Dehere, now five years of age, has added one more win at his next start two months later to bring up his win tally to three wins (all with Joao Moreira up), but has since slipped down the ratings (from 72 to 54), with no joy in 10 starts for Wee across the Causeway and another 15 runs without flattering for Koh, but his last couple of runs did suggest he might be turning the corner.
A last-start third in a Kranji Stakes D race six weeks ago had his starting price shortening to $19 favouritism in Sunday’s $38,000 Kranji Stakes D Division 2 race over 1200m, and the chestnut gelding proved them right, helped in large part by a 10-out-of-10 ride from Koh Teck Huat.
Travelling wide but with cover, Rising Empire was peeled off the back of the leaders upon straightening and once Koh had him on the right lead, he accelerated steadily to go and score by one length from Aureus (Manoel Nunes) with Zac Command (Zawari Razali) third another 1 ½ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 11.12secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
Koh said it had been a long and arduous journey of bringing Rising Empire back to his best and hoped that first win for him would pave the way to more.
“It’s been a struggle to find the winner’s circle back for this horse. He’s had problems from top to bottom,” said Koh.
“They’ve been very persistent. The moment you think they are under control, they flare up again.
“But I’ve taken my time as I know he does have the ability and it’s great to see him win today, more so on such an auspicious occasion (Chinese New Year).”
Koh (no relation), the jockey who has been closely associated with Koh’s six Malaysians, said Rising Empire was a horse who could prove a handful at times.
“He’s got the natural speed but on the Short Course today, I didn’t want to push him too soon as he would then start pulling,” said Koh.
“I had him in a good spot with cover, which was the plan and once he saw daylight in the home straight, he finished the race off very well.”
With that fourth win in 23 starts, Rising Empire has now amassed more than $260,000 in stakes earnings for Desmond Koh.
