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Everything worked like a charm for the freshened-up Sun Mirage in the $60,000 Class 4 race over 1100m on Polytrack on Sunday.
The honest four-year-old by Statue Of Liberty was resuming from a three-month let-up and duly bounced straight back to the handy form that saw him rack up two wins (both first-up from a short break) and six placings from only 11 starts.
Ridden by regular partner Wong Chin Chuen, Sun Mirage ($23) followed in an ideal spot in third spot on the rails before collaring frontrunner Grey Falcon (Manoel Nunes) halfway up the straight.
Alwin Tan’s charge is not easy to shake off when he gets his way in front and Sun Mirage certainly found that out, but he dug deep into his reserve tank before finally gaining the upperhand to record a three-quarter-length win.
Grey Falcon boxed on gamely but lost second place to the fast-finishing Bigdinero (Michael Rodd) by a mere nose on the line. The winning time was 1min 5.53secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
Koh, who was bringing up his 14th winner for the season to get into the Top 10, said Macau businessman Cheng Ting Kong’s sprinter’s comeback race had gone to script.
“He goes well fresh and everything went to plan for him,” said Koh.
“He settled into the right spot and when CC asked him to quicken, he responded accordingly.
“He is a horse who has been knocking on the door and tries really hard every time he goes around. I wished I had more horses like him.”
Wong described Sun Mirage as a “straightforward horse” to ride. The Singapore champion apprentice jockey also took the opportunity to thank Mr Cheng for his support.
“He’s a very easy horse to ride, very straightforward,” said David Hill’s apprentice jockey.
“He has good gate speed and again, he jumped very well today. He settled nicely for me and in the straight, he quickened as expected.
“I’d like to thank the owner who started to support me last year. He puts me on his horses in Singapore and things are going really well.”
Sun Mirage has now brought his stakes earnings closer to the $140,000 mark after that latest success.