French Group 3 winner Dicton finally lived up to his glowing credentials with a first winning turn at Kranji on Friday night.
The English-bred five-year-old was at his seventh local start with one fourth in a Kranji Stakes C race over 1600m as his best showing thus far, but the way he raced away to a two and three-quarter length-win in the $80,000 Seristine Cup 2018, a Class 3 race over the mile, showed in no uncertain terms that his connections had well and truly unlocked the formula to his winning potential.
A procedure to lighten up his undercarriage was a key component of that transformation. Dicton raced as an entire during his French racing career, including an invitational race in Hong Kong, before the Lucky Stable sent him to trainer Cliff Brown in Singapore where he was soon gelded.
Certainly showing he had finally grasped the nettle after the difficult start, the 2016 Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau (1600m) winner had the race all stitched up when he looped around horses as the pace slackened off from the 1000m marker.
Striding on with a blistering turn of foot, the $16 favourite swept to the lead at the top of the straight, but did compound a touch inside the last 100m.
The chasing pack was already licking their wounds, though. A little less than three lengths astern, Letitgo (Glen Boss) charged late to pip second place from Southern Spur (Alan Munro) by a neck. The winning time for the 1600m on the Polytrack was 1min 39.06secs.
Now that first win is out of the way, Brown can raise his aim at future races that are more befitting of Dicton’s calibre.
Besides his Group 3 win, the son of Lawman also won a Listed race, and more pointedly ran third in two famous Group 1 races in France, the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (1600m), which is the equivalent of the English 2000 Guineas and the Prix du Jockey Club (2100m), the French Derby.
With the Singapore feature races over longer trips coming up soon, including a gilt-edged trophy Brown won last year with the late Gilt Complex – the Dester Singapore Gold Cup (2000m) on November 11, Dicton’s future endeavours are bound to be mapped out in that direction.
“We will set him for the Gold Cup. He arrived as a five-year-old stallion and needed gelding,” said the Australian conditioner.
“He just needed racing to get fit and find his rhythm again. He won a very nice race tonight and let’s hope he holds that form.”
Rodd said he might have gone to the front a little too soon, but Dicton’s class shone right through when called upon.
“We were travelling in a beautiful position at the rear, but from the 800m to the 600m, the complexion of the race changed. Some horses were dropping off on us and I had to go around them and let him roll,” said Rodd.
“I may have hit the front too early, and he was looking around a little as he’s never been in that position before with the lights and all that, but his acceleration was amazing.
“This horse had a very good record in France where (Olivier) Peslier won on him in Group 3 race, but he was a bit of a fizzy horse and we had to geld him.
“He also ran in Hong Kong (in the Group 1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup over 2000m), but didn’t do too well (second-last to Japan’s Neorealism), and they sent him here shortly after.
“It’s good for the Lucky Stable to have a good horse like him here. I believe we would look at a race like the Gold Cup for him, but I’ll leave that to Cliff.”
Dicton came to Singapore with a handy French record of six wins and five placings in 20 starts for French-based Italian trainer Gianluca Bietolini for stakes earnings in excess of US$480,000. With that first win at Kranji, he has taken his local earnings past the $50,000 mark for the Lucky Stable.
