Shane Baertschiger enjoyed a good day at the office on Sunday when he landed a winning treble, including getting a new venture off to a bright start.
The Australian’s first Leg of the prolific haul was Mount Kinabalu (John Powell), a newcomer who made a successful debut in the $65,000 Initiation race over 1000m for a brand new owner of Baertschiger’s, the Sabah Racing Stable of Sabah Turf Club’s chairman Peter Chin.
Victorious with Seaswallow (Matthew Kellady) two races earlier, Baertschiger completed the rout when he recombined with Kellady in the $60,000 Class 4 race over 1000m to bring up win No 3, taking his score to 32 wins, level with Mark Walker.
“Mount Kinabalu is the first horse I am training for the Sabah Turf Club's Mr Peter Chin. He was a trial winner in Australia and won one here with blinkers on,” said Baertschiger of the former Adelaide-based four-year-old by Dubleo.
“We put the blinkers on again today and he won a very nice race. Mr Chin has another horse here with another trainer, but that is his first runner at Kranji and he’s won, which is fantastic.
“I got the horse from my good friend Michael Hickmott, a trainer in Adelaide and who’s also a bloodstock adviser. The bonus is Michael is here to see the horse win.
“Michael told me he thought Mount Kinabalu was a nice progressive horse that would be ideal for Singapore.”
While Mount Kinabalu’s odds of $25 suggested his preparatory runs had not gone unnoticed, Seaswallow was more of a surprise at $44, but Baertschiger said the Patapan three-year-old, whom he had had for only two runs since taking over from trainer Steven Lam, had been working well. As for old stalwart Robert E ($21), who was at his 50th start for the yard, Baertschiger could not have been happier with the US-bred seven-year-old son of Officer’s fourth win for his connections, the Auric Stable.
“He (Robert E) was first-up, won a trial last week and I thought he’d go well fresh. He’s a good old horse that has paid his way,” he said.
“It’s also good for Matty. He’s ridden two from two for us today, but it’s back to work tomorrow at the stables!”
Kellady, who was apprenticed to Baertschiger’s father Don in the early 2000s, was over the moon with the faultless result.
“Two rides, two wins. Couldn’t be happier with that,” said Kellady.
“He was coming along really well in the home straight as he chased the other horse (Just The Tip). I pulled the whip and he responded well at first, but then, he got a bit lost.
“I immediately put the whip away, and he found a neck. He’s a good old bugger this horse.”
Robert E scored by a quarter-length from Just The Tip (Thavarajan Barnabas) with War Spirit (Tan Wei Li) third another half-a-length away. The winning time was 1min 0.09secs for the 1000m on Polytrack.
“As for my first win (Seaswallow), I’ve always liked this horse since the time he was with Steven Lam,” said Kellady. “I could feel he had improved at his barrier trial when we tried blinkers on him.
“At his next race, he was up against horses like Affleck and Kiwi Karma and didn’t run that badly, but this was a lot easier.
“He was very switched on and when he got the lead, he relaxed very well and went on to score a very nice win.”
