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Experience was worth its weight of gold in the third Leg of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe series when Yaya Papaya blew away all predictions with a smart win in the $90,000 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale Stakes (1100m) on Sunday.
The son of Nadeem was the only two-year-old in the 11-horse field with three runs under the belt, albeit no win as yet.
But it is clear racing experience is not the foremost criterion for most as could be construed from his $125 odds.
Trainer Leslie Khoo, who owns half of him and gave him the typically Singlish name - which means an arrogant person – harboured a silent hope, though. After all, his fourth and fifth in Restricted Maiden company, and last-start fifth to Whistling Win, less than four lengths astern in the second Leg, the Singapore Silver Horseshoe (1000m) were runs that did give rise to some hope there was some hidden talent waiting to emerge one day.
That day has come sooner than he expected.
Given a peach of a ride by Glen Boss, his partner in the Silver Horseshoe, Yaya Papaya overcame a wide barrier to settle right behind his last-start nemesis Whistling Win (John Sundradas) in fourth before coming out around heels at the top of the straight.
In the meantime, early leader Mokastar (Nooresh Juglall) worked his way back to the front from Nova Storm (Manoel Nunes) at the 300m, and looked home and hosed while Whistling Win was not showing the same dash this time.
But they had not reckoned with Yaya Papaya who flattened out with all his might on the outside to get the measure of Mokastar by a neck on the line.
Lucky Master (Alan Munro) who played no early part in the race after settling a long last, thundered home late to snatch third place another half-a-length away. The winning time was 1min 5.55secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
“He ran quite well at his three starts, and I thought he was not without some ability,” said Khoo.
“I thought he would run well today, but I was still a bit surprised he won as it was quite a quality field.
“He had a blinker test and I had no choice but to put the blinkers on, and he actually improved with them. Bossy also gave him a very good ride.
“I have quite a few two-year-olds but I entered Yaya Papaya in today’s race so he can qualify for the last Leg (Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe on July 7).
“I own 50% of him, and I’m the one who gave him that name as I thought it would be nice to inject a bit of Singlish to our horses’ names!”
The former top jockey has been training in Singapore since 2008 but has yet to break his hoodoo in feature races, with Fastnet Dragon coming the closest for him in 2015 in the Singapore Derby and the Singapore Gold Cup, among others.
To Boss, race experience was the winning factor, not to mention Khoo’s polish in bringing the Sweet Stable-owned gelding to his peak for that race.
“He is the most experienced horse in the race,” said the Australian Hall of Fame jockey.
“At his last start, he was stuck on the inside and he was very plain. Maybe if I had taken him to the outside, he could have finished closer but he was mostly plain, and he was getting beat four to five lengths.
“But today, he got at the back of the speed, and I think he enjoyed the freedom of getting some clean air.
“He’s been a busy two-year-old and there’s not much of him, but well done to Leslie for bringing him to his best for this race.”
Though Whistling Win could only finish eighth after being well up with the space, John advised to put a line through the run.
“I think second-up, the race was too sharp for him. He was under pressure the whole way, but it had nothing to do with him being caught wide,” said John.
“He will race better after this run.”
After that first hurrah, Yaya Papaya has now earned around $50,000 in stakes earnings for the Sweet Stable.
The day got better for Khoo straight after the third-Leg win with $23 shot Kubera’s Chief (Munro) taking out the $35,000 Class 5 Division 2 race over 1200m from Metaphor (Shafrizal Saleh).