Jockey Barend Vorster was rapt he had his first winner for Ricardo Le Grange on the board on Sunday.
The two men have been behind a glut of winners - probably around 500 from Vorster’s overall haul of 708 winners - during the Patrick Shaw era when Vorster was the No 2 (behind the likes of Johnny Geroudis, Mark du Plessis and Robbie Fradd) and then No 1 rider in the last five years since he relocated from South Africa to Singapore in 2003 and Le Grange was Shaw’s assistant-trainer from Day 1.
But Terms Of Reference’s win in the $60,000 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1200m was Vorster’s first win for Le Grange as a trainer in his own right.
After Shaw decided to take a 6 ½ month-sabbatical leave last December, Le Grange stepped up to take the helm, with two winners already registered on January 2, Southern Dragon and Storm Troops, both ridden by Nooresh Juglall, who shared the bulk of the Shaw rides with Vorster.
Vorster, who turned 40 on December 31, has not been left out of the scoresheet into the New Year either, with the Laurie Laxon-trained debutant Aotearoa opening his 2017 account on Friday, but saluting for Le Grange bore a special meaning to him.
“It’s good to get one win under the belt for Ricky,” said Vorster.
“This horse has a bit of class on his side, and today, he was down in class, but he was shouldering a bit of weight (57kgs).
“It looked like he would win easily at the top of the straight, but the weight difference was a factor. Still, he fought on very well.”
Outsider Keen Dragon (Derreck David) had only 52.5kgs on his back and was not throwing in the towel yet as he worked his way back into the race on the inside after Terms Of Reference ($25) headed him at the 300m.
But Vorster boasts a wealth of experience in such tight contests, and was able to tap into it to keep Terms Of Reference on the move and preserve a head margin on the line. The winning time was 1min 12.54secs for the 1200m on Polytrack.
“Great ride by Barend, and it’s also great for the owners Bernard Kantor and Mark Yong,” said Le Grange.
“The horse was back in Class 4 and the drop back in distance also helped him. We also put the blinkers back on him and it’s done the trick.”
A New Zealand-bred four-year-old by Per Incanto, Terms Of Reference was posting his fifth win from 26 starts for stakes earnings that have now tipped over the $260,000 mark for the BM Stable.
