Together they form one of the more consistent partnerships as Shafiq Rizuan and Golden Sand Steed once again delivered the goods as they took out the $100,000 Class 2 JRA Trophy over 1100m on Sunday.
The New Zealand-bred gelding timed his late charge to perfection as he snuck in front of favourite Italian Job (Ivaldo Santana) to win by a neck in a winning time of 1min 5.72secs on the Polytrack. A further length away in third was Let’s See Action (Barend Vorster).
It was the Pins four-year-old’s seventh victory from 22 starts but first in almost five months when Shafiq successfully steered him past the winning post in a Kranji Stakes C (1000m) on November 24.
The Malaysian rider’s record aboard Golden Sand Steed is an enviable one, scoring five times in his 11 rides for the Mark Walker-trained galloper.
“I know him very well,” said Shafiq, whose 12th victory of the season moved him to within one of leading apprentice Noh Senari in the premiership.
“He’s a horse that likes to come from behind and you can’t ride him too handily at the beginning or he’ll tire out. He doesn’t really turn up for trackwork but during the race that’s when he really shows what a good horse he is.”
Despite being blessed with a fine turn of foot, support for Golden Sand Steed ($69) was somewhat lacking in this race as Italian Job, with four wins from just seven starts and the last two by a combined margin of nine lengths, commanded the attention as the $7 short-priced darling.
The US-bred, David Kok-trained galloper looked primed for win number five as he made his move down the straight to blow past leader Petrenui (Danny Beasley) and seemed poised to coast home but could not escape the attentions of Golden Sand Steed who had staged a late charge from midfield and pursued him doggedly before turning the tables right at the death.
“He’s got such a big heart and I know Shafiq has a good record with him,” said Walker, who after a quiet start to the year has now saddled eight winners since the middle of March and is up to sixth in the premiership.“It was a good field today and he was just one of six horses on paper that could have won this race. There was good speed up front which probably helped us as it meant that someone could come up over the top of the leaders which is exactly what happened.”
With his latest victory, Golden Sand Steed has now collected just shy of $400,000 in stakes earnings for the ST Resources Stable with the promise of more to come thanks to Singapore Turf Club’s recent announcement of upping the total prizemoney across most of the races here.
“He cost just NZ$65,000 and been such an honest horse for his owners,” said Walker.
“The club has also done a good job by increasing the prizemoney which will encourage more owners to send their horses here.”
