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Top Sydney jockey Hugh Bowman booted home his first Singapore winner on Sunday when he lifted two-year-old Lim’s Showcase across the line on Derby day.
Booked by trainer Leslie Khoo to take the ride on Fastnet Dragon in the Group 1 Emirates Singapore Derby (2000m), Bowman was at his third Singapore whistle stop, having ridden once at the Singapore Airlines International Cup meeting in 2013 and the CECF Singapore Cup meeting last February, both without success.
As expected, the two-time Sydney champion jockey picked up a healthy book of rides on the Derby undercard and did not let his chance to showcase his talent at Kranji slip by at only his second ride with the aptly-named Lim's Showcase ($19) in the $75,000 Hello Chicago Stakes, an Open two-year-old race over 1200m.
One of the best away from his barrier No 1, the son of Showcasing tried to hold on to his rails advantage, but soon proved a handful as he drifted in and out after 200m, triggering a bit of argy-bargy at the back where several horses were seen getting crowded.
Upfront, Bowman was able to get Lim’s Showcase to settle a little better to swing for home as the horse to run down. The first to throw down the gauntlet was Genius (Barend Vorster) but he could not quite put an indent in the margin.
Next one to tackle Lim’s Showcase certainly had more bite to his challenge with the Michael Clements-trained Chopin’s Nocturne (Manoel Nunes) drawing on level terms at the 300m mark, but Bowman picked that moment to finally really test his mount, who responded in the best possible way.
Both juveniles dug deep inside the last 100m, but Lim’s Showcase was never headed and was able to keep Chopin’s Nocturne at bay by three-quarter-length all the way to the wire. D’Buffalo Man (Shqfiq Rizuan) ran on well to finish third another 1 ½ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 11.26secs for the 1200m on the Long Course.
“I’ve had a good book of seven rides and I’m trying to capitalise on that and hopefully have a good roll along,” said Bowman who did not fail to flash his signature “she’s apples” victory salute upon coming back to scales.
“He’s not a bad horse, but he’s still got a bit of growing to do and I’m sure he’ll win more races.
“He’s very immature but he’s only two and was only at his second run. When he jumped, he took notice of what was on the inside, and he kind of came back off their face.
“But from his action, he sure has a lot to offer. We were never headed in the home straight and he was very brave to the line.”
Lim’s Showcase’s maiden win has certainly given trainer Steven Burridge reasons to smile wider after his disappointing first run when he could only finished fourth as the short-priced favourite.
“We were expecting him to run better first-up, but he was disappointing. He was probably not 100% fit and we decided to forget that run,” said the Australian trainer.
“His work has been good since and Hugh Bowman rated him very well. My horse fought like a bulldog out there.”
Lim’s Showcase is not at his first career win as he did boast two impressive all-the-way wins from as many starts in New Zealand when known as Boodles, both over 1000m at Pukekura and Trentham respectively, before he was bought by the Lim’s Stable to continue his career at Kranji.
