The Gold Run-Ivaldo Santana love affair continued to blossom on Valentine's Day at Kranji when the combination sealed their fifth success on Friday night.
There is no doubt the Brazilian jockey gets on well with the Hussonet five-year-old, whose only other win was registered with former Kranji jockey Ronnie Stewart in June 2011, as they have now saluted at their last four partnerships.
It was “love at first sit” for Santana as he hit it off instantly with Gold Run when he steered him home at his very first ride in June 2012. They then had three misses, but never put a foot wrong afterwards.
Trainer Cliff Brown is one who has cottoned on to that chemistry and it again paid handsome dividends on Friday in the $75,000 Kranji Stakes C race over 1400m.
With Gold Run beginning quickly, Santana had no hesitation in electing for the same tactics that have come to fruition at three of their previous four winning outings – make every post a winning one.
Arowana Dot Com (David Flores), a fleet-footed customer in the past, speared over from his wide alley to seemingly inject more speed in the race, but decided to stay on the heels of Gold Run, while the rest of the field were all fairly strung out behind.
Santana must have been smiling to himself as he negotiated the home turn with a lapful of horse under him.
Gold Run ($24) put a two-length break at the 300m, but he was not home and hosed yet as the swoopers had pulled the trigger and were descending thick and fast. Despite enjoying a cosy run in transit against the steel, favourite Emperor’s Banquet (Barend Vorster) was making heavy weather of it at the 200m, but Gold Rutile (Alan Munro) and OM (Corey Brown) looked like they could gatecrash Gold Run and Santana’s party.
But Gold Run, carrying the yellow and red diamonds silks of the Gold Stable, rallied bravely to score by one length while Gold Rutile had to settle for the less precious metal. OM finished third another short head away. The winning time was 1min 22.79secs for the 1400m on the Short Course.
“This is a horse I really like. I’ve won five races with him now,” said Santana.
“I think we had luck tonight as he again jumped well and we were able to lead with nobody giving us a hard time. He is very hard to beat when he has it easy in front.
“I was very confident he could win tonight as he was very fit. Well done to Cliff and his staff.”
Brown did credit Santana’s handling of his charge as one of the key factors to the sixth win, but also highlighted how the gelding’s high cruising speed did have a fair share of the kudos.
“He’s an absolute beauty. He’s so easy to train,” said the Australian conditioner.
“Santana gets on well with him and gave him another great ride tonight. But it’s also his high cruising speed which makes it very hard to run him down.
“I don’t have any big plans for him, just the same kind of race for him. I’m just very pleased he’s won again, especially for Mr Yong Nam Seng.”
Gold Run has indeed been a good moneyspinner for the Gold Stable as his prizemoney haul has now exceeded the $260,000 mark.
