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Honest campaigner Emperor's Banquet was quick to make amends for his late scratching in the Group 1 Singapore Derby, with a hard fought victory at Singapore on Sunday.
The highly-rated Australian-bred galloper was one of the dark horses for the Group 1 race over 2000m but was withdrawn after rearing up in his stall moments before the start of the Derby, leaving trainer Patrick Shaw and Mark and Emily Yong, owners of the Tmen Stable, ruing what might have been.
But there was no missteps this time as the Holy Roman Emperor five-year-old, with his Derby partner Nooresh Juglall astride, dug deep to hold off Cheetah On Fire (David Flores) by a head with Greenstone (Zuriman Zulkifli) a further length away in third. The winning time on the Polytrack was 1min 39.44secs.
“We were all disappointed after the Derby when he got scratched at the last minute but that’s racing,” said Shaw’s assistant-trainer Ricardo Le Grange, who is overseeing the stable’s operations while the South African is holidaying back home. “The victory today is some consolation for missing out on the Derby.”
Formerly trained in Australian where he saluted once from eight starts, Emperor’s Banquet has proven himself to be a formidable foe since relocating to Singapore and boasted a handy record of four wins and three placings from 12 starts. All those outings were over the turf though with this his first attempt over the all-weather surface.
“The big question for us was the Polytrack and he answered that today,” said Le Grange. “We knew there would be a bit of pace in the race and we didn’t want to bustle him too early. The horse has got ability and the big target for him will now be the Gold Cup later this year.”
The Longines Singapore Gold Cup (2200m), the third and final leg of the Singapore Triple Crown Series, will be held on November 16. Shaw’s stable looks set to feature prominently in the Group 1 handicap race, with both Emperor’s Banquet and recent South African import Alexandra Palace expected to be among the leading candidates after impressing with their latest wins.
Juglall, the first Mauritian hoop to ride at Kranji, has been a common factor in both gallopers after he steered Alexandra Palace to a winning debut last week.
“It was a confident and competent ride by Nooresh today and he’s shown that he has a future here in Singapore,” said Le Grange.
Two months into his three-month visiting jockey’s licence, Juglall has already picked up 11 winners and his confidence was understandably sky high although he painted a very different story when reflecting on his latest winning ride.
“He’s (Emperor’s Banquet) a difficult horse to settle and I didn’t expect him to switch off in the race but that’s what he did and to be honest, I was panicking at the back straight as he wasn’t travelling at all and the leaders were getting further and further away from me,” he said.
The $15 favourite had indeed looked dead and buried even before the seven runners came around the final bend as One Smart Cat (John Powell) and Greenstone were looking comfortable at the front while Emperor’s Banquet seemed to be stuck in neutral gear and struggling to find any rhythm.
“It was his first start on the Polytrack and he had to deal with the kick-back and he had a bad experience at the Derby last month so maybe that’s why he started so poorly,” said Juglall. “But thank god at the top of the straight he gave me a good kick and fought on well at the end.
“It’s my third win for the owners (his first Kranji winner was aboard Majestic Moments, another Tmen Stable-owned galloper) and I’d like to thank them for their support and hopefully it continues and I can pick up more wins for them.”
Emperor’s Banquet has now won five times from 13 starts here and has collected around $260,000 in prizemoney.
