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Winless for close to 30 months since his time racing back home in Australia, Cheyenne Warrior ended his drought in spectacular fashion with an upset victory on Sunday.
The former Victorian-based galloper’s last trip to the winner’s circle was as a two-year-old back in 2012. Since relocating to Singapore at the end of that year, the Hippocrates Stable-owned sprinter’s best result has been a solitary third-placed finish from nine outings at Kranji.
But his 879-day barren run was finally broken as the $145 longshot overcame the odds and overwhelming short-priced $6 favourite Golden Brilliant to capture the $80,000 Kranji Stakes C race over 1200m.
Ridden by leading apprentice A’Isisuhairi Kasim, who mustered a winning double after saluting earlier in the day aboard Dark Pulse, another of his master Steven Burridge’s runners, Cheyenne Warrior was unrelenting as he held off Golden Brilliant (David Flores) by a neck with Strubeli (Rueven Ravindra) another two-and-a-half lengths away in third.
Formerly trained by Michal Freedman, the four-year-old bay gelding had only recently transferred over to Burridge’s care and was at just his third start for his new Australian handler.
But Burridge has seen enough of Cheyenne Warrior’s abilities in a Class 4 race over 1200m nine days ago to be optimistic about his chances, even if they were taking on John O’Hara’s Golden Brilliant, an up-and-coming three-year-old chestnut who was chasing his fourth straight victory, and was moving away from the Polytrack for the first time.
“This was his first start on the grass,” said Burridge. “But Harry rated him very well before today and I actually thought he was going to win with 200m to go at his last start but he overraced and weakened over the last bit.”
There was no repeat of a poor finish this time once Cheyenne Warrior had seized the initiative in the small field of seven runners following a smart jump from barrier six and despite a desperate late charge from Golden Brilliant who gave himself too much to do down the straight, the winning post came to Burridge and company’s rescue. The winning time on the Short Course was 1min 10.05secs.
“He’s an awkward horse to race and Harry did a great job on him,” he said. “I was a bit surprised at how easily they let him get away with the lead and left him alone at the front for so long but the horse fought on well at the end to keep the favourite away.”
He was also full of praise of his apprentice’s turnaround in form and revival as A’Isisuhairi looks to retain his champion apprentice title.
“There was a bit of a rough patch in the middle of the after he lost his claim to 1kg but he’s done a great job to recover and he’s been riding very well,” he said.
With his 23rd victory of the campaign and eighth since June 1, A’Isisuhairi has now put some daylight between him and second-place Noh Senari (18 wins), who has endured a frustrating time and has been drawing blanks since his last winner on June 13.
“I was happy to get to the front even though my horse can be a bit keen and it took him a while to relax but he’s improved since his last start and it’s great to get the win for the boss and the owner,” said A’Isisuhairi, who is also just three winners shy of his 100th Kranji winner. “There’s still five months to go and I can’t relax now even with this lead.”
By Not A Single Doubt out of Miss Argyle, Cheyenne Warrior had earned A$81,638 during his stint Down Under and has now chalked up just over S$50,000 in his adopted home here.
