Kiwi trainer Donna Logan kept up the winning momentum built up around the end of last year with a winner right off the very first day of the new 2019 season – Makkem Lad.
After a fairly quiet start to her new Singapore tenure in April last year, the 850-odd race winner back home really hit top gear towards the tailend of the Singapore season, racking up nine of her total tally of 12 winners in the last three months.
A key player (four wins) - as was Logan’s stable jockey Erasmus Aslam (five wins) - in that late surge, two-time Singapore champion jockey Vlad Duric looks all set to continue being a major team player this year after guiding Makkem Lad to a gutsy win in the $50,000 David Lee Freedman Stakes, a Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m on Polytrack.
The Australian rider has certainly begun his second reign as Kranji’s kingpin in the best possible way, having already saluted aboard Federation for Mark Walker in the previous event, the $75,000 Good Health 2019 Stakes, a Restricted Maiden race over 1200m.
Duric showed why he was the best with two ten-out-of-ten handlings. On Federation ($12), he settled the Written Tycoon three-year-old off the pace before cuddling him to the outside for his winning dash while he rated Makkem Lad – he steered him to his maiden win at his last start on November 11 by coming off the pace - beautifully at the head of affairs.
Reach For The Sun (Nooresh Juglall) chipped away at the margin, but Makkem Lad, who was backed down to $9 favouritism, didn’t buckle, going on to score by three parts of a length. Born To Be King (Matthew Kellady) ran third another 3 ¼ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 12.68secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.
Logan said she would keep the three-year-old son of Kuroshio to similar races in the near future, but with an eye on loftier targets on turf further down the road.
“This horse has really got better with time. He really deserves it,” said Logan.
“Vlad told me it’s a very testing Polytrack out there. It’s quite deep and they’re making hard work of it.
“I’m very pleased with the way he hung on, he never gets a draw as well. My son told me he was the fastest maiden to have won last year.
“He’s got speed and we may look at the 3YO series later, but for now, I’ll keep him to those Polytrack sprints.”
Duric said Makkem Lad was a little on the fresh side after missing a race.
“He was a bit fresh as he hasn’t raced for a while; he missed that race. Still, he did a tough job to stick on the way he did,” he said.
“He’s a very nice sprinter with a bright future here.”
With that second win (in five starts) under the belt, Makkem Lad has now seen his bank account swell past the $110,000 mark for the Eden Park Stud Stable.
