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It may be the Year of the Horse but there was plenty to celebrate in the Dragon household as trainer Leticia Dragon bagged a winning double on Sunday.
A couple of hours after watching $140 outsider Silent Power claim an unlikely victory in a Class 5 race (1700m), Dragon again overcame the odds as the unfancied Silver And Gold took out the $75,000 Kranji Stakes C over 1600m on the third day of the Lunar New Year.
Despite rising in class, the Argentinian-bred entire produced a fighting victory to hold off a fast-closing Mr Armstrong (Barend Vorster) to win by half-a-length while Smart Idea (Manoel Nunes) was a nose away in third. The winning time was 1min 39.77secs.
It was the four-year-old brown galloper’s second triumph in three starts and maintained jockey Alan Munro’s unblemished record aboard Silver And Gold as the English rider was also the pilot two starts back.
“I didn’t need to give him any instructions. Alan knows this horse pretty well and he made an excellent judgment call near the end to send him to the front and get the win,” said Dragon, who certainly appreciated Murno’s sense of timing after he guided Silent Power to the shock victory earlier in the day.
“This horse has been improving and has really become a better horse in the past year,” added the Singaporean handler, who also owns Silver And Gold.
The stallion by Easing Along out of Silver Fortune has three victories from 12 starts and has collected just over $110,000 in prizemoney.
This latest triumph was down to two things, said Munro.
“It was a bit of a lucky win as I was riding him for chance,” he said. “But he’s got plenty of heart too and really showed it today.”
The early pace was set by noted frontrunner Cheetah (Danny Beasley) who recovered from a disastrous start to lead the small field of eight runners as Munro kept Silver And Gold well placed in second position, cruising along without exerting his mount.
Only with 500m to go as they were rounding the bend did he release the handbrakes and allowed Silver And Gold to fly forward with the assurance that he had saved enough petrol for the final charge.
“He’s comfortable leading but Danny set a comfortable speed for us and I knew this horse had the pace down the straight to get in front of him and I know he’s a horse with a lot of heart,” he said.
After only saddling a solitary winner before Sunday’s meeting, the winning brace was warmly welcomed by Dragon, whose wide smile needed no interpretation.
“Definitely a nice way to start the Chinese New Year,” she beamed.