Emergency Acceptors don’t win all that often, but jockey Matthew Kellady has earned the rare distinction of having now saluted aboard two of them at his last two wins.
The Ipoh-born jockey’s last win was aboard standby starter Guilty Pleasures on April 15 and two weeks later, he got another late call-up to take the ride on Effortless after the list of scratchings came out, and again got right on the money.
While both are a welcome boost to his tally (eight but extended to nine later with Best Tothelign), especially when he would normally have been watching the race in the jockeys’ room, Kellady got a greater kick out of Effortless’s win in the $60,000 Class 4 race over 1000m. He had to waste to 51.5 (half-a-kilo over) to ride the EA1 runner.
“I only got the call from Stretch (Shane Baertschiger) this morning the horse was in. I had to head straight to the Singapore Polo Club to jump in the sauna,” said Kellady.
“I only came out at 11am and was able to get down to 51.5kgs which was good enough for Stretch. I remember last time I wouldn’t ride lower than 52kgs when I was riding for his dad Don.
“But now things are different, you give up the ride and someone else will grab it and that is how you lose your competitive edge.
“It was hard work but it was all worth it. I’ve won on two Emergency Acceptors in a row now, but Effortless was certainly tougher as Guilty Pleasures had 54.5kgs.”
Kellady said he did not mind the two hours in the sweat box if the conveyance waiting at the end of it is well worth it.
“I know Effortless well. Last time I rode him, he pulled up on me when he hit the lead,” he said.
“He’s the sort of horse you cannot take to the front too early. I dropped back and let him improve slowly, and you just have to cuddle him along for as long as possible.
“When the gaps came up, I just let him through and he hit top gear for a nice win. He again stopped but it’s all about the timing with him.”
Favourite Mastermind (Benny Woodworth) led as anticipated while Effortless ($26) dropped back in a rearward position, spotting the leaders as much as eight lengths coming to the home turn.
As Mastermind swung for home as the horse to run down, Effortless snuck up along the rails, waiting for the last 200m to take a gap between Mastermind and Fat Power (Koh Teck Huat) to burst clear. Again, he loafed around when he found himself on his lonesome but Kiss Me (Alan Munro) could only whittle down the margin to half-a-length.
Outsider Blue Diamond (Nurshahril Nordin) boxed on for third another neck away. The winning time was 59.6 seconds for the 1000m on Polytrack.
Effortless has now taken his record to two wins and two placings from nine outings for prizemoney around the $75,000 for the MA Racing Stable. The win also gave Baertschiger a training double (he added a third later with Best Tothelign) as two races earlier, Duty First (John Powell) recorded his first Kranji win when victorious at the same odds of $26 in the $38,000 Kranji Stakes D race over 1200m.
Interestingly, the Redoute's Choice four-year-old is out of the mare Kisma, who is the dam of many other Geoff Grimish-owned gallopers, the most famous being dual Group 1 winner Red Tracer, Shellscrape and along with his most famous Kranji resident One Rar.
