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Bad draws and unsuitable trips put paid to Adrenaline’s chances at his last runs this prep, but there was no stopping him with the much more favourable conditions on Friday night.
Half the battle was indeed won when Adrenaline, who drew off the track at his last couple of starts, jumped smartly from his better gate (7) to cross to the fence under apprentice jockey Zuriman Zulkifli in the $60,000 Class 4 race over 1600m.
From that point onwards, the young rider controlled the pace to a nicety, certainly a foreboding sign for the $58 shot’s eight rivals when they were seen scrambling for a challenge at the top of the straight.
Favourite Smart Vintage (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) was winding up on the widest part of the track, but soon died on his run. In Fact (John Powell) poked his head in, but could not quite raise the stakes when needed.
Adrenaline kept grinding away, but was nowhere near home despite holding a sound safety margin under Zuriman’s relentless whip-wielding action. In the end, Black Snow (Zawari Razali) ran on for second place another half-a-length away with Californian Jet (Jackson Low) turning in the eye-catcher with a flashing run for third place another neck away. The winning time was 1min 36.66secs for the metric mile on the Short Course.
Winning trainer Bruce Marsh never lost faith in the Align four-year-old even if he had finished out of the placings at his four runs from a spell thus far.
“He’s always been a handy horse. We gave him a spell after he ran second on Polytrack, which was a hell of a good run,” said the New Zealander.
“He needed the spell as he also had some issues with his teeth and immaturity mainly. In saying this, immature horses normally never sticks with the same weights, but not this guy.
“He’s weighed in at 468kgs at his last five runs now, which is quite extraordinary really. I think he has fully matured now and a lot more is in store from him.
“Then again, I’m not a great believer in body weights. I train him with my eye and I could tell he has really improved.
“Tonight, he had things going his way. He had a light weight, the 1400m was too short for him and tonight’s trip suited him better.
“But he’s also better off going in front which he had not been able to do when drawn wide lately. He runs in all the time and that was how (Manoel) Nunes got suspended on him once.
“We didn’t really want to lead tonight, as we thought the topweight (Black Snow) would lead and we would take a trail, but Zuriman took matters in his own hands and when he got a soft lead in front, I was pretty confident.”
Marsh was full of praise for his apprentice jockey, who keeps up the prolific run enjoyed by fellow rookies this year by bringing up their 200th success.
“Zuriman knows this horse inside out. He’s quite a difficult horse tor ride and he deserves to win on him tonight,” said Marsh.
“He rated this race very well and I’m sure that will pump him up.”
The Kelantan-born rider said the fact he had drawn a much lower gate this time went a long way in securing the all-the-way win.
“He had bad luck with draws at his last couple of starts. Tonight, I was able to cross to the lead and that helped,” he said.
“He was coming back from a spell and after a few runs, he was back in form and it showed tonight. We got a soft lead in front and he fought very bravely all the way to the line.”
Marsh said the win by Adrenaline was also a nice morale-booster for his owner Dato David Wilson of Drummond Red Stable, who recently retired his star horse Street Legal, last year’s Class 4 to Singapore Gold Cup leading contender fairytale story following a hot streak of wins.
“It’s very pleasing for Dato Wilson after he just retired Street Legal to Malaysia. Not saying he’s as good as Street Legal, but he will definitely get more ground on his dam side,” said Marsh.
“We got him at the Ready To Run Sales at the same time as Cool Customer. Dato Wilson wanted a stayer and he got him for NZ$40,000 only.”
Adrenaline was at his second win (first win was recorded over 1400m) from nine starts and has now amassed close to $95,000 in stakes earnings.