A new Kiwi connection paid instant dividends with the stunning victory of Darci’s Boy last Friday.
New Zealand trainer Bruce Marsh was certainly rewarded for booking fellow Kiwi Alysha Collett on the $134 shot in the Class 5 race over 1600m.
The young lass was not expecting any spark from that first combination, just happy Marsh was giving her a first leg-up since her arrival in Singapore back in May. The veteran trainer himself has not had the best season with only five winners on the board thus far.
But Darci's Boy, who has not saluted since his only previous win in March 2017, was in a galloping mood at his 29th start on Friday night. The Darci Brahma five-year-old showed a little more pace than usual to track up leader Baymax (Nooresh Juglall) before going for broke in the straight for a 1 ¼-length win from Powerful As Wind (Olivier Placais).
Pleasantly surprised, Collett hopes the win will now pave the way to more successful partnerships with the Marsh yard down the road. At the same time, it’s a road which she is keen to stretch beyond November 9 (the end of her current six-month tenure).
“It was an unexpected win on Darci’s Boy, but it was good to get a first win for another Kiwi!” said Collett, who hails from a famous racing family in New Zealand.
“I wasn’t sure how he would go to be honest, but with only 52.5kgs on his back, I thought it might be a winnable race.
“The horse travelled well behind the leader and gave a nice kick in the straight. He’s still in Class 5 and I hope he can win again.”
Darci’s Boy, who is also raced by New Zealanders, the Lincoln Farms Stable, has brought Collett’s Singapore tally up to six wins in two-and-a-half months, a score the 400-race winner is fairly happy with given the highly-competitive riding ranks at Kranji.
“I’m quite happy with my score and the way things have gone here. I really love Singapore and its racing,” she said.
“I would definitely like to stay here longer. Fingers crossed, my application for an extension gets approved.”
In the meantime, Collett hopes at least one from her book of four rides at the Friday standalone meeting can help pad up her current score, even if she is not all that excited with either.
“There are no standouts this week. It looks like it might be a quiet Friday, but that was what I thought last Friday,” she said with a grin.
“Leslie Khoo’s My Friends (Race 4) in the Restricted Maiden race is probably my best chance. He’s run two nice races so far, and is well drawn.
“Plato (Race 3) got badly checked at the 200m on debut, and went okay at his next start. I expect an improved run tomorrow.
“I don’t know much about Walters Bay (Race 5) and Mark Walker’s new horse Yulong Fire (Race 8). I can only hope they run well.”
