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A scorching pace in the $75,000 Big Easy Class 3 race over 1100m on Polytrack saw Argentinian-bred galloper Great Light regain his winning form on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The Pure Prize five-year-old has been mixing his form of late, running out of the placings at his last three outings since his last win in a Polytrack race over 1200m last October.
But with Hard Stuff (Koh Teck Huat) and Raleigh (Tan Wei Li) going helter-skelter upfront and Ronnie Brown (Steven King) trucking up right behind, it was almost predictable a backmarker would prevail at the business end.
While Raleigh duly disappeared from the race at the top of the straight, Hard Stuff was showing a lot more enterprise as he held on tenaciously until odds-on favourite Ronnie Brown levelled up at the 200m and swept past him, but right down the outside, Great Light ($56) came swooping down with a late rush to win going away.
The popular Ronnie Brown, who was resuming from a two-month spell, was rolled again (he found one better at his last start) to run second another 2 ¼ lengths away, with Hard Stuff holding on gamely for third place another three parts of a length away.
Taichi Master (Ivaldo Santana), who was billed as Ronnie Brown’s biggest threat, weakened in the home straight after being caught four wide throughout to beat one home. The winning time was 1min 5.06secs.
Though a little surprised by the way Great Light returned to the winner’s circle, Clements said he had always harboured big hopes for the now four-time Kranji winner, who won at his only start in Argentina.
“I’ve always thought he had a brilliant future here, but it’s just that he’s not an easy horse to train,” said Clements.
“He lightens up a lot and loses condition quickly when he races. It’s very hard to manage him and place him in his races, and that’s why I’ll probably just keep him to those 1200m races for the time being.
“But leading up to today’s race, I knew he would run a good race, as he had dropped to his correct weight, but I didn’t expect him to win the way he did.
“I guess the fast pace suited him as they were all coming back to him. The plan was actually to sit behind the pace but they went quicker than we thought, and Manoel did a good job to take his time on him.”
Nunes said he derived plenty of benefit from the first leg-up he had aboard Great Light at his previous outing.“He’s a lazy horse who needs to be pushed hard throughout the race, but the main thing about him is he is a bit field-shy,” said the Brazilian rider.
“When I rode him for the first time at his last start, he didn’t want to take a run inside runners. Again, he was not comfortable inside runners today and I just let him go to the outside and that worked better for him.
“I gave him a slap around the home turn, and he quickened very well to win a very good race.”
Great Light has now brought his earnings past the $160,000 mark for the Happy Song Stable.
