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Useful galloper Accomplished beat a handy field to cross the post first in the $125,000 Open Handicap race over 1400m on Friday.
Ridden by apprentice jockey Joseph See, Accomplished ($33) was second-up from a six-month spell and taking on some heavyweights like Stepitup, Goodman and Trudeau, but still showed plenty of determination to come out tops in a thrilling four-way go.
A full-brother of former top miler Super Gold, Accomplished was considered as one of Sam Chua's better horses, scoring all his previous five wins for the ex-Kranji trainer. He was then moved to the yard of Tan Hor Khoon after Chua had to give up training in March due to bankruptcy, but the son of Golden Snake has not taken too long to showcase his talent under the different training regimen.
Jumping smartly from gate four, Accomplished was able to get into a good position behind the searing pace set by Goodman (Manoel Nunes), with longshot Red Beard (Matthew Kellady) and Born To Fly (Pregasam Dellorto) just ahead of him.
Upon straightening, Goodman came under siege, with Accomplished and Trudeau (Michael Rodd) leading the charge, but both drifting across the track to the standside.
The Laurie Laxon-trained Goodman was not about to give up the lead without a fight on the rails, but just when he looked like there was enough left in the tank to outrace the challenging duo, Accomplished kept chipping away on the outside to eventually take the race by a neck from a fast-finishing Gold Rutile with Goodman third a further nose away. The winning time for the 1400m on the Long Course was 1min 22.04secs.
See, who has had a bit of a resurgence recently, having won five races in June alone, has established a solid record with Accomplished, having now saluted three times from five rides. But the Perth-trained apprentice jockey humbly played down his role in the winning run.
“He’s a lovely horse and he definitely ran a good race today,” said See. “He carried a light weight so I’m sure that helped him as he is not 100% yet.
“Before the race, we were planning to hit the front early but the pace was too fast, so we sat back a little. But we also had to keep an eye on the leaders and make sure they don’t go too far from us.
“I was expecting them to kick first after we straightened before I made my move but when nothing happened, I decided to go for it around the 400m mark.
“I’m glad he kept going after that all the way to the end.”
Tan was a little more bemused than See as he had not expected to be lining up for the photos at the winner’s circle for this race.
“I did not expect him to win this race at all,” said Tan.
“It was a strong field that he was running against and I was just hoping for a good run from him.
“He will be running again on July 26 in a 1800m race.”
With this latest win, the Australian-bred galloper has brought his stakes to around $325,000 for the Happy Winning stable.