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Rising Empire made an auspicious debut for trainer Leticia Dragon when he took out the sixth Leg of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe Series, the $75,000 Magic Millions National Yearling Stakes over 1000m on the Polytrack on Friday night.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
Ridden by Joao Moreira, Rising Empire scored a four-and-a-half length victory over Saltlake City (Stephen Baster) with Rory (Soo Khoon Beng) a short-head away third.
Rising Empire made his debut back in March under the care of Brian Dean, finishing second behind Zeus Thunder, before moving to Dragon's stable shortly after.
A barrier trial victory on April 17 gave Dragon confidence the two-year-old would give a good account of himself and after settling handy in the run he exploded away from his rivals soon after turning for home.
Dragon said she would give serious consideration to starting Rising Empire in the final Leg of the series, the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe over 1200m in a fortnight's time.
“He's a young horse and still learning,” said Dragon. “He showed quite a bit of promise at his last barrier trial on April 17 and he had trained on well after that.
“Importantly he has been eating up and putting on weight as well. He's had some hard gallops and a trial and he hasn't lost any weight at all.
“We'll see how he comes through this race but I would like to think he would run the feature race that is coming up.
“That's on the turf and he's shown he has a real liking for the Polytrack. It will certainly give us something to think about.”
Moreira allowed Rising Empire to track the speed that was set by Rory and Zac Appeal (Saifudin Ismail) before releasing the brakes soon after turning for home.
Zac Appeal was already feeling the pinch at this stage while Rory – owned in the same interests as previous Leg winners in Zeus Thunder and Griffin – had taken over and given a kick.
But it was always evident that Rising Empire had his measure while Saltlake City made good ground late in the race to just pip Rory out of second money.
“He is a nice horse and has the potential to develop into something nice,” said Moreira. “He's still a baby.
“He relaxed very well in the race and he gave a really good kick when I asked him.
“I didn't have to go bashing him with the whip and he gave me the confidence that he would give a strong kick if something came to challenge him.
“Leticia has done a great job with this horse and he gives the feel that there are more wins in store for him.”
A two-year-old by Dehere from the Flying Spur mare Chandon Rose, Rising Empire was an A$60,000 yearling purchase and after his two starts in Singapore has returned owners Empire Ninety Racing around $55,000 in prizemoney as well as picking up a $25,000 bonus for being sired in Australia and sold through one of the two auction houses sponsoring the series – Magic Millions or Inglis.