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Trainer David Kok is eyeing a twin assault on next month’s Group 3 Juvenile Championship following a debut victory for Star Jet who took out Super Easy 2013 Stakes on Sunday.
Ridden by Manoel Nunes, the Australian-bred two-year-old gelding sailed home from barrier to post in comprehensive fashion to take out the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1200m, beating Exciting Prospect (Alan Munro) by a length with Happy Saga (Tan Wei Li) another two-and-a-quarter lengths back in third.
For someone who previously did not have any two-year-old horses in his yard since he started five years ago, Kok now has the aforementioned Star Jet as well as stablemate Castor, a lightning quick speedball who last month captured the $90,000 Inglis Sydney Better Life Stakes (1000m), the fifth leg of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe series.
Both are up-and-coming prospects who will be credible challengers to the Laurie Laxon duo of Kiwi Karma and Affleck when the $200,000 feature race for juveniles is staged on July 27.
“He’s still a baby but he did a good job to win today,” said the Singaporean handler. “He’s quite a promising horse with potential and he and my other horse Castor will race in the Group race for two-year-olds next month.”
The bay galloper did not compete in any of the six legs of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe series and was only making his first start at Kranji after arriving here in February.
“There wasn’t enough time to get him ready to run in any of those races and I didn’t want to rush him,” said Kok, who collected his eighth winner of the season. “I’ll see how he pulls up after this race before I decide if he’s able to squeeze another race in between now and the big race next month.”
By Domesday out of Fashion Star, Star Jet was purchased on the back of an impressive trial win in Tamworth, New South Wales, last November and followed that effort with a stunning 12 ¼ -lengths win in a barrier trial here on June 10, donning blinkers for the first time.
Despite his tag as a Kranji newcomer, those two outings was enough to convince the public who backed Star Jet as the short-priced $6 favourite and the Northwest Racing Stable-owned gelding did not disappoint his supporters with a commanding performance and picked up around $41,000 in stakes earnings for his connections.
After jumping smart from gate one, he was positioned nicely next to the rails by Nunes and with the light load of just 50kg on his back, Star Jet was quickly into his stride and surged to the lead easily.
It was a position he would not relinquish for the rest of the 1200m journey on the Polytrack and Star Jet ended the contest in a winning time of 1min 13.30secs.
“I thought the blinkers were going to be useful for him today as he can be quite a lazy horse and they help sharpen him and keep him focused,” said Kok. “He ran well today but he’s still a baby and will learn from this experience and get better.”
Meanwhile, Singapore’s leading hoop Nunes got off to a flyer on Sunday afternoon when he made it back-to-back triumphs, taking out Race 2, a $65,000 Initiation race over 1400m on the Long Course with the Mark Walker-trained Hardcore Rock for his 63rd win on the jockey’s log.