Possibly the one jockey among the 12 who had slipped a little under the radar compared to the others.
Aldo Domeyer had the Kranji crowd suddenly sitting up and taking notice after he propelled Team South Africa to the top with a copybook hold-up winning ride on Safeer in the third Leg of the Premier Gateway International Jockeys Challenge, the $80,000 PGI Jockeys Challenge South Africa, a Kranji Stakes C Division 1 race over 1200m on Tuesday night.
Unheralded in this part of the world, South Africa’s second placegetter behind Lyle Hewitson on last season’s national log did give a glimpse of his riding ability early doors when he pinched 12 points from an unexpected third place aboard $299 smokie Houseboat Harry in the opening Leg.
He then finished out of the placings on Awesome in the second Leg, but still rustled up seven points before banging in 30 points from Safeer to soar up the leaderboard to 49 points, just one point shy of early leader Rab Havlin of Team UK.
Not only Domeyer had given himself a big push with the win from Michael Clements’ $54 shot, but also for the Proteas team, who had been a little behind the eight ball before the third instalment, but who has now leapfrogged to the top of the heap on 90 points, eight clear of Team Australia.
After two solid overall performances in the first two Legs, Team UK lost a bit of steam in the just-concluded round with a paltry 11 points to throw into the bank, consequently dropping to third place on 75 points while Team Asia produced their best result thus far with captain Joao Moreira and Singapore champion jockey Vlad Duric finishing second and third on Solaris Spectrum and Super Power respectively.
With 27 points in the bag, the Asian Tiger was on the prowl, albeit still bringing up the rear on 67 points, but certainly tacking on without being too outpaced, to remain mathematically still in the race for the overall title, even if it will have to take something close to a winning trifecta to overhaul themselves to the top.
But all honours to Domeyer, son of South African top jockey Andrew Fortune, who just recently retired and has turned to training with great success since (Domeyer even memorably rode his first winner by 20 lengths).
The 31-year-old rider showed fantastic poise on Safeer, a son of Savabeel Clements and the Al-Arabiya Stable had harboured high hopes for in this year’s Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge, but it was in a different Challenge, of the jockey’s kind that he finally shone.
Adding more merit to the win for Domeyer was the fact Kranji’s favourite son, Moreira, looked home and hosed at the 300m when he guided Solaris Spectrum to a prominent spot which had paved the way to 737 winners before.
But the South African jockey was not the least bit fazed by the Magic Man’s early move. Biding his time, he first made sure his mount was well-balanced and in the clear before peeling him off for his run.
Though rolling off under pressure, Safeer put in the big bounds at the right moment to defeat Solaris Spectrum by half-a-length. Super Power ran third another length away. The winning time was 1min 9.23secs for the 1200m on the Long Course.
“You don’t need to say much how it feels to win among such world-class riders who don’t need to be introduced,” said Domeyer as he weighed in at the Kranji scales a winner for the first time.
“Just to be present here on this world stage riding against the best in the world is amazing. I’m so glad I’ve come up here and to come on top with at least one winner.
“We don’t hear a lot about Singapore back home but we do see a lot of its races. I really like the racing here.”
Clements said Safeer has come back a better horse after a short break.
“This horse ran in good company with the three-year-olds. I gave him a break after that prep, and he’s come back in good shape,” said the trainer from Zimbabwe, a close neighbouring country to Domeyer’s.
“It’s a great initiative from the Singapore Turf Club to organise such a jockeys’ challenge here. It can only promote our racing to the world.”
