After 18 unsuccessful rides, Australian jockey Tim Bell booted home his first Kranji winner as a long-term licensed jockey when he grabbed a narrow victory aboard the Cliff Brown-trained Hades on Sunday.
For good measure, the 22-year-old rider went on to make it a quick double in the next race with favourite Lim's Bullet for his main supporter Steven Burridge in the $65,000 Initiation Division 2 race over 1200m.
The former Brisbane champion jockey did ride at a one-day pitstop visit at Kranji on Juvenile Championship day in July, bringing up one win on Lim’s Sprint in one of the supporting races, but Hades’ nose win in the $60,000 Class 4 Division 1 race (1200m) was his first at his recently-commenced 3 ½-month licence.
Of the brace, Bell, who began his Singapore stint on October 9, no doubt had to work harder aboard Hades ($32), who did not travel all that kindly at various stages of the race and needed a fair bit of coaxing to get to the line.
Inclined to throw his head up a few times, the Coats Choice five-year-old was within striking distance from the fighting pair of Barnato (Nooresh Juglall) and Solaris Spectrum (Kif Toh), but did not seem to be quickening fast enough to split them.
But Bell did not give up and wielding the persuader to good effect, managed to get Hades to burst between the pair and get the verdict by the barest of margins from Solaris Spectrum. Barnato held on well but had to settle for third place another half-a-length away.
The winning time was 1min 10.5secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
“It’s nice to get that first win and hopefully it will snowball into more,” said Bell.
“He began a little awkwardly and threw his head up a little, but he settled and had his head on his chest, and ran quite relaxed.
“He did hit a flat spot in the home straight, but to his credit he grinded away to get the win. On the line, I thought I had won as he had his head down, and thankfully the photo has gone my way.”
Brown extolled Bell’s perfect handling of Hades given he labels the gelding, despite having two previous wins under his belt, as a difficult horse to ride.
“He’s funny little horse. He’s got a sensitive mouth and throws his head around,” said the Australian conditioner.
“But he plugged on well today and just kept going. Timmy rode him very well.”
As for Lim’s Bullet ($13), the way the win was forged was slightly less labour-intensive, but Bell still had to get the job done.
Settled in midfield on the rails, the Battle Paint four-year-old began to improve from the 800m before being angled out for his run with Bell hardly moving a muscle while Classified (Shafiq Rizuan) and The Dodger (Rueven Ravindra) were flat to the boards.
Once he was clicked up for another gear, Lim’s Bullet accelerated past the pair, though Classified did try to raise another challenge late, but the top elect was safely home by a length. The Dodger held on for third place another three parts of a length away. The winning time was 1min 10.64secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
Burridge said Lim’s Bullet, whose win came as a natural progression from his previous two runs, a third and a second, still had room for improvement.
“That’s the way to ride him - ride him quiet and take him to outside for his run,” said the Australian.
“He hung in and hung out and is still very green, but he can only improve further.”
