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Trainer Patrick Shaw continued his strong affinity with the Causeway Classic Stakes when he secured a third consecutive win in the 1800m Polytrack race with the vastly-improved Irish-bred gelding Cannon Hill on Friday night.
Photo by Racing and Sports
After the South African conditioner first put his name onto the roll of honour with South Easter in 2011 before doubling the score with the Fred Crabbia-owned Maurice Utrillo the next year, he has now bagged the event, which was at its fourth running but the first time run as a Group 3 race, a third time, with Cannon Hill, also running in Crabbia's black and red maltese cross silks.
The bottomweight of the eight-horse field (carried 49.5kg in the end with jockey Barend Vorster riding half-a-kilo over) settled at the rear of the field, biding his time off a frantic pace set by a Goodpack (Alan Munro) hellbent on holding the rails at the expense of topweight (59.5kg) and joint $17 favourite Flying Fulton (Jose Verenzuela) who was subsequently forced to race one-off the rails throughout.
Cannon Hill started weaving his way back into the field from the 1000m to be within striking distance at the top of the straight, while upfront, Goodpack was still holding sway, but not Flying Fulton who was already starting to feel the pinch and noticeably shortening up.
All eyes then turned to the other co-favourite Ready To Strike on whom jockey Joao Moreira was seen applying pressure from the 400m mark to get him off his box-seat and launch his attack, but he suddenly dropped out of contention when he went amiss and was eased out of the race.
With the two top fancies gone, the well-tried Itiswhatitis (Manoel Nunes) and outsider Iluminado (Matthew Kellady) were the next to pounce onto the scene, but it was Cannon Hill ($34) who suddenly emerged at the 250m to get on terms with Iluminado on his inside before pulling away for a comfortable 2 ½-length win from the game Steven Burridge-trained Argentinian-bred. Itiswhatitis plugged on well for third another 1 ¾ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 51.41secs.
Shaw said Cannon Hill used to be a “struggling Class 3 galloper”, but turned the corner when he did not just break his maiden status at Kranji last April, but also broke the 2200m course record to all of a sudden shape as a potential Group 1 Longines Singapore Gold Cup (2200m) contender on November 17.
“He’s really improved this year. He was once struggling in Class 3 company, but we’ve corrected a few things and he’s now a lightweight Gold Cup chance,” said the South African handler.
“We’ve added pacifiers and put a bit more speed into him. We sent him to the front and that seems to have worked.
“With his low weight tonight, I thought he had a high chance of winning. I always knew there would be a strong pace to the race and he relished that.
“I told Barend to just let him sit off the pace and he will run on, and that’s exactly how it panned out in the end.”
Cannon Hill’s win not only cemented Shaw’s mortgage on the Causeway Classic Stakes, but also sealed a charmed run in feature races for his jockey. Vorster was at his third “black type” win in a row, having also landed the previous two, Flax for trainer David Hill in the Group 2 Chairman’s Trophy on July 28 and Davide (also for Shaw) in the Group 3 Woodlands Handicap on August 9.
“We’ve had a bit of a good run of late and let’s hope it keeps going,” said the South African hoop.
“They went pretty quick in the first two furlongs and that suited us, but I was mindful not to get too far behind.
“He’s a horse you can’t bustle along for him to get going, but at the same time you don’t want him too outpaced.
“I just bided my time as he just kept on sweeping, and from the 800m, he was really travelling into the race. He did look around a little in the home straight, but his light weight helped him put the race away quite easily in the end.”
Vorster, who in his 10 years of riding in Singapore has yet to win the time-honoured Singapore Gold Cup, believes he has in Cannon Hill a good lightweight chance.
“This horse just keeps improving all the time. He may come in with a light weight in November,” he said.
“And with so many of the big names sidelined, you never know.”
Vorster was alluding mainly to last year’s Gold Cup winner and champion mare Better Life who was recently retired to stud after her win in the Emirates Singapore Derby last month.