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Promising Japanese-bred filly Bendicion benefitted from a 30-day break after her creditable campaign in the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge to record a convincing win in the $75,000 Progress race over 1400m on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
Fifth to Stepitup in the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) before improving two ranks when a closing third to the same horse in the final Leg, the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m), the Hideyuki Takaoka-trained Bendicion looked the goods when she launched a searching run at the top of the straight to see off the fast-finishing Bullet Fly (Jose Verenzuela) by one length from race-leader Luwak Coffee (A’Isisuhairi Kasim). The winning time was 1min 22.06secs.
Bendicion was sent out as the joint $11 favourite with last-start victor Holy Empire, but the Shane Baertschiger-trained grey threw away his chances when he bucked and kicked at the start, losing ground and was never really a threat thereafter to finish fourth.
Takaoka said Bendicion was going for a well-deserved break after her win, her third from seven starts for Japanese owner Masa Otani of Big Valley Stable.
“It was a good win, but she had to work hard in the end. She’ll have a rest for three months and we will then maybe look at the better races later on,” said Takaoka without elaborating which feature races were on his radar. “I will definitely step her back up in distance.
“She ran very well in the Guineas and I was expecting her to run well in this small field (six after the withdrawal of Chinese Culture), which was a lot easier.
“Alan rode her very well, giving her a perfect run on the inside. Our job was made easier when the other good horse (Holy Empire) seemed to have a problem and was caught wide throughout.”
Munro agreed that things could have been a lot tougher had Corey Brown’s ride not played up shortly after the start.
“Corey’s horse did a rodeo after the start. Not sure what happened there,” said the British hoop. “Something must have gone wrong.
“We had a good trip throughout, taking a good sit behind the pace and in the home straight, she just went straight to the lead when we cornered.”
Mr Otani, who shuttles between Japan and Singapore, was on hand at Kranji to lead in the filly to the winner’s stall. He revealed that his little knowledge of Spanish and the increasing hardship of finding a good English name was behind the naming of the Black Tide three-year-old.
“It’s very hard to find a good English name as most of the horses are named in English in Singapore,” said Mr Otani.
“As I speak a little bit of Spanish, I’ve been looking for Spanish names for some of my horses. Of course the most famous is El Dorado (triple Singapore Gold Cup winner), but I also had a horse called Intencion with Tony Vasil in Australia.
“I named this one Bendicion which means meditation as I wanted something a bit spiritual. She’s a nice filly and I hope she keeps going that way.”
One team who will be hoping for their charge to mend his ways is that of beaten favourite Holy Empire. Brown, who did a good job to keep the colt’s waywardness at bay, said it could be an undercarriage issue.
“He bucked for a few strides at the start. He’s still a colt, and I think it’s his testicles which are too big and seem to bother him when he runs,” said the Australian jockey.
“His mind was not there at all during the race. That’s a race to ignore.”