Fujin Bright overcame a tardy getaway to still come out tops in Friday’s $100,000 Open Benchmark 83 race over 1700m and register his fifth win in Singapore.
The Japanese-bred six-year-old by Tanino Gimlet was bringing up a race-to-race double for Japanese trainer Hideyuki Takaoka, whose Golden Jade (Saifudin Ismail) scraped home by a nose from Chi Lin (Alan Munro) in the previous race, the $35,000 Class 5 race over 1800m.
In a way, Takaoka compensated Munro for that narrow defeat aboard Chi Lin as the English jockey was the one who drove Fujin Bright to a gutsy short-head win from Bourbon Goldman (Zuriman Zulkifli).
Beginning their hunt locked together from the top of the straight as runaway leader Nation Theatre (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) started to come back to the chasing pack, the fighting pair went hammer and tongs in the last furlong before Fujin Bright ($53) gained a slight edge right at the wire.
Takaoka said he had been praying Fujin Bright would jump on terms given his late tendency to loaf at barrier rise, and prayed even harder when he again come out a clear length last.
“I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to watch anymore,” said Takaoka.
“The instruction was to lead as that’s the way he is normally ridden, but just like at his last start, he missed the start again.
“He’s a small horse but sometimes he puts in a good fight, and at other times, he just does not put in anything at all.
“But Alan gets along with him and when I saw him get back in a winning position from the backstraight, I was confident he could make up for the slow start.”
Munro said he did not panic when Fujin Bright was slow out of the gates and just gradually improved from the rear to be third and ready to pounce by the point of turn.
“He’s a horse that used to lead, but he missed the jump tonight. I think that has become a habit that is hard to kick and we just have to ride him for luck in a different way,” said the English rider.
“I let him settle in his stride and started to hunt him up to get him closer to the lead. He fought very well in the end.”
Fujin Bright has now recorded five wins and six placings from 27 starts for stakes earnings close to $260,000 for the Brighton Stable.
