The addition of winkers has really worked wonders for promising three-year-old Southern Boss after he won his second consecutive win with that gear on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The son of Bletchley Park scored on debut last December but then put in a shocker to finish among the also-rans at his next start. From the feedback of his riders that he tends to gaze around, trainer Leslie Khoo then decided to apply the winkers in a bid to correct that habit.
That move paid instant dividends when he scored a head-win in a Class 4 1000m race on February 2 and stepping up in similar company and over the same trip on Sunday, he was even more dominant in victory this time.
Zac Heaven (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) kept him company from the start and tried to mow him down in the home straight, but Southern Boss ($14) asserted his clear superiority in the home straight to draw clear for a 2 ½ length win from Zac Heaven, with That’s Gold (Pregasam Dellorto) third another 1 ¼ lengths away. The winning time was 59.31 seconds.
Khoo said his confidence in his new ward was all along high but dropped off when he found out he had lost 10kg in body weight before the race.
“He’s a very nice horse, easy to train and very sound. My only worry today was his 10kg drop,” said Khoo.
“But he’s a horse that needs to run fresh. In the end, he won very well and again the winkers have done the trick as he’s a horse that can look around a fair bit in his races.
“I may look at the first leg of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge with him.”
The Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1200m) will be held on March 31 and will then be followed by the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) on April 21 and the finale, the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) on May 17.
Nunes, who flew in on Saturday night from an unsuccessful pitstop visit in Hong Kong where his ride, the Allen Tam Man-chau-trained Lucky Jai finished out of the placings (10th) in the Hong Kong Macau Trophy, was at a riding double, having scored by a whisker aboard the Desmond Koh-trained Beautiful World in Race 4.
“He’s not a bad horse. He’s obviously still learning and will get better with more racing,” said the Brazilian hoop of Southern Boss.
“He jumped only fairly, but I gave him a dig and he was able to put himself in a good position.
“As I know he’s a horse that has a tendency to hang out, I put him on the rails early and luckily I was able to stay there.
“When he gave a very nice kick in the home straight, I knew we couldn’t lose this race.”
Nunes said that his Hong Kong ride Lucky Jai did his best but could not quite live up to expectations in the annual interport Group 3 race won by the David Hall-trained Solar Great at Sha Tin.
“I put him in a lovely spot, but he just didn’t have his usual dash in the home straight. The Hong Kong horse (Solar Great) was just too good,” he said.
