It was a bumper day for New Zealand bred gallopers at the Selangor Turf Club’s meeting on Sunday, with seven of the nine winners on the card hailing from New Zealand.
These included a pair of feature-race winners in Duma (NZ) (Too Darn Hot), who won the 2024 NZB Ready To Run Sale Trophy (1200m) on debut and Bold Runner (NZ) (Contributer), who won the 2024 NZB Airfreight Trophy (1200m).
New Zealand Bloodstock Director of Business Mike Kneebone and New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing Chief Executive Andrew Birch were on-course to present the trophies for the respective races.
The Frank Maynard-trained Duma was a brilliant winner of the RM 50,000 feature, charging through the line to get the better of fellow Kiwi graduate Trees of Valinor (NZ) (Telperion)
Duma was purchased for $45,000 at last year’s Ready To Run Sale by Esther Quan Hui Lim from the draft of Prima Park.
The three-year-old gelding is by popular Dubawi sire Too Darn Hot out of the stakes placed Bel Esprit mare Podravina and was bred by Pencarrow Thoroughbreds Ltd.
Winning trainer Frank Maynard has a lot of time for Duma.
Photo: Selangor Turf Club
“I always knew he wasn’t bad and as I asked a bit more of him, I knew he was good. He had had a few jumpouts and he was pretty well schooled going into the race,” Maynard said.
“He will probably race in a month’s time and go through the grades. I think he is a real miler and that is why I wasn’t concerned when he was off the bit on Sunday, because I knew he was going to come with the way he worked.
“I’ve got a good opinion of this horse, and I think he will be contesting some of the better races.”
With Macau and Singapore both closing this year, Maynard said it was important that young horses continued to be sourced for Malaysia.
“I think it is important that these young horses continue to come through. Bold Runner who won yesterday is a nice horse too and even Trees Of Valinor which ran second to us is a nice horse that I had seen at the barrier trials. They have all come from the Ready To Run Sale and all have ability,” he said.
“Duma is a good type with good bone and a quality head.”
Also successful in a RM 50,000 race was the Ananthen Kuppan-trained Bold Runner, with the son of Contributer narrowly defeating the highly fancied Yes Man to score at first time of asking, backing up his good trial form.
Bold Runner is a graduate of Riverrock Farm’s draft at the 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale where he was purchased for $60,000 by Tan Tiang Huat.
Out of the winning Makfi mare McPhoebe, Bold Runner was bred by Simon Niblett.
“He is a horse with good ability,” Ananthen said. “I was at the sale at Karaka and I liked him and was recommending him to my owners.
“He will have a few weeks break now as I don’t want to push him too hard, but he has a very good future. I think he will get out over 1400m no problem.
“I was quite confident heading into the race and he ran a good time on a yielding track.”
Both Duma and Bold Runner are raced by RC Stables.
Other Kiwi bred winners on the day included One Abracadabra (NZ) (Fabulous), Commander (NZ) (US Navy Flag), Berry Bliss (NZ) (Charm Spirit), Military Flag (NZ) (US Navy Flag) and Limitless Roar (NZ) (Embellish), who was a stunning winner of the last race for leading trainer Simon Dunderdale, who sent out five winners on the day.