Though unwanted in the betting on exposed trial form, the New Zealand bred Sacred Buddy (NZ) (Sacred Falls) still blitzed his rivals on debut by four and a half lengths in the Open Maiden race (1200m) at Kranji on Saturday.
Purchased as an unraced galloper from New Zealand on the back of three solid trials for Levin trainer Josh Shaw, Sacred Buddy arrived in Singapore at Trainer Desmond Koh’s stable in July and took no time to settle into life at Kranji.
A few months later, the four-year-old son of Sacred Falls had his one and only trial in Singapore, where he finished second to Silver Dragon who finished down the track on debut on 28 October.
On jumping, though, it was Sacred Buddy who pinged the gates from barrier nine and took up the lead. At the 500m, jockey Iskandar Rosman looked to be struggling to hold Sacred Buddy together and the pair had pulled their way to a one-length lead heading into the straight before the young jockey gave his mount some reins at the 350m.
The margin slowly extended to two lengths but when Iskandar got serious with a couple of cracks of the whip at the 200m, Sacred Buddy found another gear – maybe two – to extend his margin to close to five lengths in a heartbeat, before being eased down to win officially by four-and-a-half-lengths on the line.
The winning time was 1min 9.99secs for the 1200m on the Short Course. Sacred Buddy’s debut win added over S$10,000 of earnings for the Blazing Expectations Stable.
Although Koh was not on course to cheer on his 15th winner of the year, the Singaporean handler was more than happy with how things panned out from afar.
“He’s a nice horse,” said Koh.
“He was training well towards this race. He was eating well and training with enthusiasm.
“We had the jockey (Iskandar) urged him forward. He (Sacred Buddy) was still a little green but he’s got good tactical speed. He was a little keen on the rider around the bend, but he ran on well.
“It was a nice ride by Iskandar considering the horse looked hard to settle. He didn’t go too early, which was a good move, and the horse responded when asked for an effort.
“A good ride and a good win.”
Iskandar was not as bullish as Koh before the race, but he was glad with how things turned out.
“I rode him in trackwork, but he didn’t show much,” said the two-kilo claimer from Malaysia.
“I wanted to ride him in third or fourth with cover but instead, we led.
“The horse was nervous but gave me a good feel in the straight. He won very well.”
Other New Zealand bred winners in Singapore on Saturday include Ben Wade (NZ) (Ferlax), My Boss (NZ) (Rock ‘n’ Pop) & Axel (NZ) (Darci Brahma).
