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Former handy juvenile Hello Michelle has come back a brilliant winner at only her second run as a three-year-old on Friday night.
The New Zealand-bred filly showed early promise when she captured one Leg of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe series in May, but then fell a bit by the wayside at her next three runs, including the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe (1200m).
Trainer Mark Walker gave her more time to grow and strengthen up and the results were already visible when she ran an eye-catching third to stablemate Distinctive Darci first-up in a Novice race over 1100m on August 28.
Her trackwork has been top-notch since, and following a positive ride from Alan Munro, her only winning partner thus far and who was incidentally reuniting with her, the Minstrel Court three-year-old looked a good thing when she powered away to a commanding break at the 300m in the $60,000 The Faithful+Gould Cup, a Class 4 Division 1 race over 1100m.
Jelly Bean (John Powell), the other female in the 12-horse field, was the only one who could upset her when she jumped out of the ground with a sizzling acceleration at the 200m, but Hello Michelle ($20) held her challenger off rather comfortably to score by one length. Knight Chen Bay (Michael Rodd) tried to make all but could only settle for third place another 1 ½ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 5.5secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
Walker said he had been only concerned by her wide barrier prior to the race, but he had left the tactics in Munro’s good hands, and was glad the results had panned out the way the English jockey wanted.
“From the wide draw, Alan said he would ride her positive. I wasn’t going to argue with him on this one,” said the Singapore champion trainer.
“She travelled across quite well and I think the 52 ½ kilos also helped her. She has developed into a nice filly during the break.
“Things are really improving since we returned to our block. We were away for four months and the horses could feel it, some are still taking a while to come back, but others like Hello Michelle are already back in form.”
Munro said people could not draw too much from Hello Michelle’s two-year-old form, but she has really come into her own now.
“Her two-year-old form was probably closer to Class 4, but she’s had a break and has come back a much better filly,” said Munro.
“She’s not far off the Class 3 company now.”
Hello Michelle has now taken her record to two wins from seven starts for stakes earnings inching closer to the $100,000 mark for the Synthetic Stable.