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Trainer Shane Baertschiger and jockey John Powell combined for a race-to-race double with Sacred Army and Preditor on Friday night.
The first winner had been beating around the bush for a while, flying home just to find one better, but the eighth outing in the $35,000 Maiden race over 1700m proved to be right on the hammer.
Backed down to start at prohibitive odds of $9, Sacred Army settled in the rear division early on, but loomed ominously as he cornered into the home straight. That much-needed ice-breaker looked all sealed and delivered but Red Riding Wood (Glen Boss) did mount a feisty fightback before relinquishing victory by half-a-length. The winning time was 1min 45.47secs for the 1700m on the Polytrack.
While Powell earned plaudits for the way he put in the hard yards on the Towkay four-year-old, he deserved a standing ovation for his even more gut-busting ride aboard the next assignment, Preditor in the $60,000 Open Benchmark 67 race over 1800m.
Looking landlocked for the best part of the race, Preditor ($27) charged away along the rails when an opening came up, but then it was his turn to roll off the fence at the 200m.
Keep Spinning (Vlad Duric), who was screaming for daylight right on his heels, pinged right through as Preditor left some wiggle room, but Powell punched his mount right over the line to gain the verdict by a short head.
Special Force (Oscar Chavez) was also in the reckoning out wide but had to settle for third place another neck away. The winning time was 1min 47.41secs for the 1800m on the Long Course.
Powell joked that the double would keep Baertschiger happy, but it was clear he was just as happy as a lark as he brought his 2017 tally into the double digits on 10.
“It’s great to have a double. It’ll keep Stretch happy,” he said after dismounting from Preditor.
“Sacred Army was going around two turns for the first time and he was also jumping from 1400m to 1700m. I think he’s better over the mile and on grass, but he was not up against much and he had to win tonight.
“As for Preditor, I was a little boxed in with (Gerald) Mosse keeping me in and I knew the other jockeys would not let me come out as well.
“But luckily, I was able to switch back to the fence when the leader (The Jeuneyman) rolled off, but then my horse began to move off the fence as well.
“Vlad got up on the fence, but luckily for us, the winning post came up right on time.”
Baertschiger has not set anything in stone yet for the Savabeel entire who runs in his family pink and red hooped sleeves silks, but a famous 1 ¼ mile race in July is shimmering ahead on the horizon.
“Preditor pulled too hard at his last start. He trials without blinkers and we decided to leave them off this time,” he said.
“The 59kgs was a concern, but he’s won over 60 kilos in a Cup race (Taranaki Cup over 1818m on February 5, 2016) in New Zealand, so he can carry some weight.
“I could have claimed with him but I decided to stick with JP as he knows the horse well and I’m glad I did.
“He will go for a let-up now as I would like to consider the 4YO series with him and the Singapore Derby. He can’t have five runs from now till then.”
With that second victory, Preditor sees his bank account swell past the $80,000 mark for connections. Known as Predator when prepared by Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young in New Zealand, Preditor boasted a record of two wins and one second from six starts (including one in Sydney before being imported to Singapore) for stakes money of NZ$24,000.
