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Champion jockey Joao Moreira continued his great association with Street Legal when they combined to take out the $75,000 Class 3 Stakes over 1800m on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
Bringing up a four-timer for the afternoon with previous wins aboard Black Unicorn, Orakei Korako and Domenico, Moreira has now ridden Street Legal on four occasions, registering three wins and a fifth placing.
In an all Brazilian jockey finish, Street Legal, starting the $14 favourite, scored a fighting neck victory from The Rude Warrior (Ivaldo Santana) with Itiswhatitis (Manoel Nunes) the same margin back in third place.
Moreira paid a huge compliment to trainer Bruce Marsh in taking Street Legal from a Class 5 galloper back in September last year to winning in Class 3 company 11 months later.
“Bruce has done a terrific job with this horse,” said Moreira. “He’s taken him from a Class 5 horse through to winning a Class 3.
“He’s got him racing just so well at present and I was just lucky enough to get on top of him at the right time.
“Today we were able to get into a good spot and relax in the run and when I asked him for an effort when clear in the straight he showed a lot of guts to win.
“Full credit to Bruce and all his staff for continuing to do a great job with this horse.”
Daad's The Way (Zuriman Zulkifli) led the way from Full Toss (Danny Beasley) and My Friend Jo (Matthew Kellady) on settling down with the order changing little until the pace hotted up coming off the back straight where Irish Flash (Sam Subien) made a run around the outside.
At this stage Moreira was held-up slightly back towards the inside but was able to work his way between runners and into the clear soon after straightening for home.
It looked for a couple of strides that The Rude Warrior was going to make a race of it, but Street Legal rallied gamely to score a well-deserved victory.
Street Legal won consecutive 1900m races back in May before finishing fifth in Kranji Stakes C grade on June 14. He then backed that up with a good third behind Nandowra in the Group 3 Yew Tee Classic Stakes over 1800m on July 5.
Marsh said confidence gained from winning had brought about the change in fortunes for Street Legal.
“He’s just found a purple patch of form at the moment and is really making the most of it,” said Marsh.
“He just needed to get a bit of confidence back and he did that with his two wins on end and then his last run in Group company was very good and he was much better suited today back in Class 3 grade.
“He’s a good little horse with a lightweight and he’s very happy and in great form.
“Hopefully we can find something similar for him coming up while he’s in this type of form.”
An eight-year-old Australian-bred by Street Cry from Brief Girl, Street Legal has now won six of his 55 starts in Singapore and with a further 19 minor placings has won around $350,000 in prizemoney for connections, the Drummond Red Stable.
