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Emirates Singapore Derby winner Chase Me makes his reappearance after a two month break in the Group 1 $500,000 Panasonic Kranji Mile over 1600m on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The Desmond Koh-trained five-year-old hasn’t been seen on the racetrack since his dominant victory in the Group 2 $350,000 Chairman’s Trophy over 1800m on July 29.
That victory against the older horses came on top of his eight length victory over Deep Pockets in the Group 1 $1.15 million Singapore Derby over 2000m on July 15.
Joao Moreira had the mount aboard Chase Me in those two victories but local jockey Soo Khoon Beng takes the mount on Sunday.
‘KB’ had the mount on Chase Me when the gelding first entered Koh’s stable after initially doing his early racing with Laurie Laxon.
After winning “first-up” on Chase Me back on February 11, 2011 in Class 4 company, ‘KB’ had two more rides on the gelding in the following two months, finishing out of the placings on each occasion.
He was reunited with Chase Me when the gelding finished a 1.6 length fourth behind Gingerbread Man in the Group 2 Stewards’ Cup over 1400m on June 3.
Moreira took over on Chase Me when he finished fifth, beaten 1.5 lengths, behind Ato in the Group 1 Patron’s Bowl over 1600m on June 24 – a good pipe-opener for the gelding before his Derby and Chairman’s Trophy triumphs.
Tuesday morning was an important part of Chase Me’s program towards the Kranji Mile and later races when the son of Storm Creek had a hit-out in a 1000m barrier trial in which ‘KB’ was his partner.
Travelling wide and well back in the early part of the trial, Chase Me made steady ground to the 150m mark before ‘KB’ asked him for that final effort. Pushed out to the line he grabbed Sir Fleetwood (Joao Moreira) in the final stages to win by a head in the time of 1 min 02.98 secs.
Chase Me had been under an injury cloud prior to Tuesday’s trial in which he wore bandages and Koh said the hit-out would go a long way to improving his fitness levels in the lead-up to Sunday’s race.
“He got a bit of a problem when resting in his box,” said Koh. “We had to ease up on him a bit and he missed a bit of work.
“He’s been back working for a few weeks now but he’s still well short of where we really want him.
“Also the mile (1600m) is well short of his best distance and he’s still a bit heavy in his body weight.
“This trial will pick up his fitness quite a bit. We wanted him pushed out in the final stages to get him to hit the line strongly.
“I’m sure he will also get a lot of benefit from the run on Sunday and we will be guided by how he performs as to where he will run next.”
Koh said the Group 1 $500,000 Raffles Cup over 1800m on October 21 was the logical next step for Chase Me who will be racing in bandages when he contests Sunday’s Kranji Mile.
“We will get through Sunday’s race first and then I think we’ll go on to the Raffles Cup,” said Koh.
“After that I will sit down with the owners and we will make some plans as to what we will do after that.”
Koh was reluctant to commit to a start in the Group 1 $1.35 million Longines Singapore Gold Cup over 2200m on November 11 preferring to see how his charge comes through his next two starts.
Chase Me is the winner of seven of his 24 starts and his last two victories at Group level has seen his prizemoney reach almost $1.1 million for owners – Super Trio Stable.