The Lee Freedman-trained Heliosphere scored a brilliant all-the-way win in the $70,000 Kranji Stakes C race over 1600m on Friday night, handing the newly-minted Singapore champion trainer his first win of the year
The $9 odds-on favourite sprang out of the gates nicely under jockey Daniel Moor before crossing over to lead in no time, while his last-start nemesis Black Jade (Ben Thompson) followed in second place on his outside.
At the 350m, Moor started to hunt up his mount on the rails as Black Jade and Star Jack (Marc Lerner) gave chase. But the change to frontrunning tactics turned out to be spot-on for the four-year-old son of Sebring as he hung on by one-and-a-half-lengths to turn the tables on Black Jade.
The resuming Star Jack finished another half-a-length away in third. The winning time was 1 min 35.2 secs for the 1600m on the Long Course.
Freedman was relieved he has finally got the monkey off his back almost one month into the new season.
“I’m getting sick of chicken rice. I’ve been having it all month, and all the cheap stuff!” joked Freedman.
“He’s a funny horse. He’s a rig and he thinks a bit, and it probably suited him being in front.
“They went along at a good clip and he ran home pretty quick too, so that’s a good effort from him.
“I think I’ll probably give him one more run over the 1800m. If he can get his ratings up, then we will give him a break, and prepare for the Derby in July.
“He’s a promising horse, but I’m not certain I did the right thing not gelding him before this prep, but that’s something we can think about.”
The Group 1 Singapore Derby over 1800m is opened to four-year-old horses and will be held on July 21 this year. It used to be the third leg of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge series, in which the first two legs are the Stewards’ Cup (1400m) and the Charity Bowl (1600m) respectively, but the series were ended this year with the discontinuation of the second leg.
Moor, who booted home his first winner on No Fun No Gain last Friday, was delighted the switch in running pattern turned Heliosphere’s form around.
“Quite satisfying as I was extremely disappointed with him last start,” said the Australian hoop.
“I didn’t think he travelled well in amongst horses at all. We identified that and decided to ride him the way we did tonight.
“During the week, we worked him on the outside of runners, and he was really good.
“A change of gear also helped as the winkers were on. He got into a beautiful rhythm and was never going to get beat.
“He is handy, and that win will give him a lot of confidence, and hopefully, he will go on with it.”
Owned by China Horse Club and previously trained by Gerald Ryan, Heliosphere had five runs in Australia and won one race over 1600m in Warwick Farm, before being transferred to Singapore and has won two thus far, earning over $80,000 in prizemoney for connections.
