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On the back of another scintillating performance, trainer Sam Chua’s giant-killer Cavallo should be regarded as a colossus in his own right.
Ridden by regular partner John Sundradas, the contest was over once the Testa Rossa four-year-old switched on the afterburners and made the final furlong a formality as he beat El Milagro (Danny Beasley) by almost four lengths with Double Star (Rueven Ravindra) a half-length away in third.
It was Cavallo’s eighth victory from 24 starts, an impressive one in three strike rate, and the brown galloper has proven to be a savvy purchase for the Beverly Hill Stable having deposited around $520,000 in stakes earnings into the bank for his connections.
Chua was understandably thrilled with this latest win from his classy sprinter, who has bagged five wins from 12 starts since he was transferred from trainer Michael Freedman’s yard over to the Singaporean handler’s care in the middle of last year.
“I’ve entered him in some really good races in the past and maybe he’s not at that class but he’s still a very good horse,” he said.
In fact, the last five outings for Cavallo have been at feature level and while he battled bravely and with distinction, he was no match for some of the country’s star runners and was defeated by Zac Spirit in the Group 3 Kranji Sprint (1200m), Emperor Max in the Group 2 Stewards’ Cup (1400m) and most recently to Spalato in the Group 1 Patron’s Bowl (1600m) two weeks ago.
“We brought him back to this level and I thought he was always going to have a good chance,” said Chua, who despite the small field of six runners nevertheless still had to contend with the likes of top gallopers Huka Falls (Corey Brown) and Pioneer Seven (Manoel Nunes), who were better fancied than his $27 runner.
His sense of optimism quickly increased as the race unfolded as those two horses set off at a blistering pace at the head of the queue, clocking 23.16secs in the first sectional and breaking the field up into three blocks.
This created big gaps in between each runner and minimized the risk of any accidental collisions, which was music to Chua’s ears.
“He’s been unfortunate in his past races and been checked inside and because of that never found his rhythm. So when I saw those two set a fast pace, I thought we were very lucky. It opened up a lot of space for us and he could run without getting bumped.”
Coupled with the light weight of 53.5kg, a significant factor as Cavallo’s last two wins were achieved with 52.5kg and 50.5kg on his back, he bided his time as the leaders ran out of petrol at the top of the straight and John only had to punch the button on his mount and Cavallo’s explosive turn of foot took care of the rest. The winning time on the Polytrack was 1min 11.88secs.
“The pace and the light weight really suited him and I didn’t mind dropping him back and letting those two horses lead at the beginning,” said the Malaysian hoop, who collected his 15th winner of the season.
“He’s been a good horse on the Polytrack and perhaps those races on the turf were a bit too tough for him. Today was much easier and he just finished the race so well.”