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Brazilian jockey Ivaldo Santana and The Rude Warrior have struck up an affinity on the Polytrack in recent outings.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
And that continued on Sunday when the pair took out the $75,000 Open Benchmark 74 Stakes over 1800m.
Sent out the $15 equal favourite, The Rude Warrior scored by a length-and-a-half over El Perigo (Stephen Baster) with Super Zucca (Greg Cheyne) a neck away third.
Santana has had three rides on The Rude Warrior for as many wins and all on the Polytrack surface.
The Rude Warrior was coming off a last start seventh in a 2200m Benchmark 74 class race on November 11.
Trainer David Kok said getting back onto the Polytrack certainly helped the gelding.
“He failed last time on a wet track on the turf and getting back on firmer footing on the Polytrack helped him,” said Kok.
“He’s got a very good record on Polytrack and having Santana on him also helped.”
Even though The Rude Warrior was trapped wide in the mid-stages of the race, Kok was not concerned.
“Santana rides the horse so well,” said Kok. “He knows the horse needs a fast pace and when the pace backed off he decided to go forward.
“I wasn’t that unhappy to see him out wide as he crept into the race without having to do too much work.
“I knew in the straight when he was that close to the leader that he would be hard to hold out as he is a good stayer.”
The Rude Warrior has now won four of his 17 starts, all of them on the Polytrack and the last three for the Kok-Santana combination.
A four-year-old by Kempinsky from the Encosta De Lago mare Soorena, The Rude Warrior took his prizemoney to almost $200,000 for the United Dragon Stable with his victory on Sunday.