A change in racing bit did the trick on Bellwether as he swiftly bounced back from his debut failure with a resounding win in the $60,000 Class 4 race over 1000m on Sunday.
Punted down to $7 favouritism at his first Singapore run, the former Adelaide sprinter flew out the gates to try and lead all the way, but his condition just blew in the last 100m to finish fifth.
Trainer Michael Freedman took some feedback from jockey Manoel Nunes and decided to remove the tongue-tie which they had brought about to take care of some breathing noises he makes while running, and replace with a tongue-suppressing bit instead at his next run.
With jockey Corey Brown jumping aboard this time, Nunes deciding to ride the $12 favourite Jet Man instead, Bellwether showed the gear switch might have been the right solution when he jumped smartly to edge ahead of his eight rivals at the start.
Brown did not press on immediately, but once he realised no-one else was keen to dictate terms, he slipped some reins to Bellwether who obliged with no fuss by leading hard up against the rails.
Master Dragon (Mohd Zaki) and Neutrinos (Barend Vorster), who was Bellwether’s conqueror at his debut, were next in line, but they were soon making heavy weather of it once Bellwether was given his head at the top of the straight. The Bel Esprit three-year-old put the issue beyond doubt as he raced away to a commanding 3 ¼-length win from Satellite King (David Flores) with Magic Ocean (Alan Munro) third another 2 ½ lengths away.
Bellwether, who started as the $15 second favourite, ran the 1000m on Polytrack in 59.14 seconds.
Freedman, who just a race earlier saw debutant favourite Snitzel Spirit miss out by a whisker, was glad he had better luck this time, especially after Bellwether proved a let-down at his Kranji maiden appearance.
“We were a little stiff in the race before. That will sure make up for it,” said Freedman who was the only person sipping on his glass of bubbly at the Champagne Room, with the Adelaide-based owner Paul Crawford not on hand to watch his charge win his first Singapore race.
“We were a bit deflated after he lost at his first race. When a horse stops so quickly, it is normally not a good sign.
“We knew he had some noise issue, and that was why we put the tongue tie at his debut, but obviously that didn’t quite work out.
“We changed the bit to a special tongue-suppressing bit, and he seems to respond better to that.
“Paul raced the horse from Adelaide and picked him as one who would be suited by Singapore. It’s nice that he has been able to get a win out of him at only his second start.
“The plan was to ride him with some cover, but he began so well that Corey thought he’d just let him roll instead of wrestling with him.
“Besides he’s a bold running type of horse and once he was in front he travelled very well all the way.”
Though pleasantly surprised by the big space the gelding scored, Brown thought the penny had not dropped yet.
“He went too hard the other day with Manoel Nunes, he was all revved up. I think the gear change helped him today,” said the Australian hoop.
“I wanted to get cover originally, but after he jumped so well, I just let him roll, otherwise it may take a lot out of him.
“Once in front, he was able to relax well for me and he won very well in the end. I was actually a bit surprised with the way he won so easily.
“He’s a nice horse, and I expected him to run well in that grade, but he’s still got a few quirks.
“Once he learns how to relax better, he will be a much better horse.”
Bellwether came to Singapore with a sound record of one win (1000m at Murray Bridge) and two thirds that earned him A$23,700 in prizemoney, and has already surpassed that amount with Sunday’s winnings of around $35,000 at only his second start.
