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Trainer Alvin Tan unveiled ambitious plans towards Singapore’s two premier sprinting events for his smart galloper Touch Of Gold after he saddled him to another impressive win on Friday night.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The Singaporean conditioner revealed he was backing up the Captain Rio four-year-old for the $500,000 Group 1 Lion City Cup (1200m) next Sunday week, following which he would be charting a path towards the $1 million International Group 1 KrisFlyer International Sprint (1200m) on May 19.
Vaunted by Tan as his “second-best horse after Speedy Cat”, Touch Of Gold lived up to the big wraps with a sterling effort in Friday’s $75,000 Kranji Stakes C (1200m) on Polytrack, that saw him overcome the top impost of 59.5kg to defeat Eclair Flyer (Tengku Rehaizat) by one length with Eatons Gold (Shafiq Rizuan) third another two lengths away. The winning time was 1min 11.03secs.
Not the quickest beginner, Touch Of Gold, however, capitalised on his barrier No 1 to rail through for a cosy spot hugging the fence in fourth place while Mr Mani (Zuriman Zulkifli) and Treasureintheheart (Tan Wei Li) held sway upfront.
Moreira bided his time and only got busy at the point of turn when he peeled Touch Of Gold out in search of a gap to launch his challenge. The $8 favourite could not quite pull away, though, as Eclair Flyer, to whom he was giving away 2.5kg, proved hard to shake off.
But class prevailed in the end as Touch Of Gold drew from all his reserves to get the upperhand on Eclair Flyer before putting the race away inside the last 50m.
“I’ll see how he pulls up. If he’s all right, I will race him in the Lion City Cup next Sunday,” said Tan. “He’s proven at his last win that he could handle the turf as well.
“Tonight, he did a very good job as he was carrying the top weight. There was a bit of pressure because of the 59.5kg, but he did not let us down.
“He’s a horse who tries his best at every run. I just wished he was a three-year-old as he would then have some scope for improvement.
“But he’s four, and I just hope he can still show us a bit more at a higher level. I’ve already nominated him for the KrisFlyer, but he will have to pick up some more points to get there, and I hope he can do that in the Lion City Cup.”
Moreira said Touch Of Gold, with whom he has now combined for two wins from as many starts (he was aboard at his last-start success on turf on April 7), won on sheer braveness.
“To win the way he did carrying such a big weight means he’s a very brave horse,” said Moreira who was again in red-hot form as he went on to score three wins in a row in the next race aboard Irish Flash, having saluted earlier on Captain McCaw.
“There was 2.5kg between him and Desmond’s (Koh) horse (Eclair Flyer) who is not a bad sort. He fought hard and drew clear in the end.
“Everything was in his favour tonight. He looked in very good shape before the race, and all I had to do was keep him out of trouble.
“During the race, he was always very relaxed and I was very fortunate when we found the gap in the home straight. I dove for it and he was just too good.”
Touch Of Gold has now brought his earnings past the $230,000 mark for the Oasis Stable.