Jockey Barend Vorster and Glorious Prospect proved they got on like a house on fire after they combined for back-to-back wins on Friday night.
The South African rode the Alamosa five-year-old to an all-the-way shock win at gigantic odds of $233 in a Kranji Stakes D race over 1600m a month ago. Glorious Prospect made a daring raid at Group level in the El Dorado Classic (2200m) at his next run but dwindled to run ninth for Saifudin Ismail.
Trainer Laurie Laxon dropped him back to more modest Class 4 fare at his next run three weeks later, and this time rebooked Vorster for the job. It was like deja-vu for the duo.
Bustling up Glorious Prospect, who again had only a handful of admirers ($291), from his horror gate (14) to come across for the lead after 200m, Vorster seemed to be tapping into his prior knowledge of the gelding as he went to sum up the remainder of the race to perfection.
Upon straightening, many expected the roughie would not be able to burn the candle at both ends, but they were wrong.
Jockey Danny Beasley for one must have thought the race was in his keeping when Lim's Elusive pulled him into a striking position at the 300m, ready to take down the sitting shot that was Glorious Prospect, but Vorster got pumping away in his charactestic piston-like style, which evidently does the trick on the dour galloper.
Glorious Prospect held his ground stoutly to score by three-quarter length from Lim’s Elusive with Higher Soul (Derreck David) third another half-a-length away. The winning time was 1min 47.84secs for the 1800m on the Long Course.
“He’s a one-pacer. When I first rode him, I realised he needs some stirring up,” said Vorster.
“At the second ride, I gave him a wake-up and he responded very well to go all the way.
“Tonight, he took a few strides to get going but once he got into stride, he was comfortable and he held off the other horse very well.”
Assistant-trainer Shane Ellis said he was not really surprised the Macau-owned galloper had saluted for the second time in almost carbon-copy style.
“He had no weight on his back and he does best when he leads,” said the Australian.
“Tonight’s race was a drop in class and I gave him a bit of a chance. He’s a one-batter and Barend rode him very well again.”
With that second victory under the belt, Glorious Prospect has now brought prizemoney close to $60,000 for his owner Lai Chan Cheong.
