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Rising up in class and distance, emerging stayer Dalgety came up with the goods even if he had to be hard-pushed to the line in Sunday’s $80,000 Class 3 race over 2000m.
A runaway winner over the mile at his second Kranji start, the former Victorian galloper had to do grind his way to the line this time after he was launched off a one-out one-back spot.
Pacesetter Chocolats (Barend Vorster) did not concede defeat so easily on the rails when Dalgety strode within his girth, but under Glen Boss’s urgings, Dalgety lunged at the line to gain the verdict by a short head from Chocolats.
Mighty Emperor (Krisna Thangamani) flew from last to run third another half-a-length away. The winning time was 2min 3.34secs for the 2000m on the Short Course.
Winning trainer Steven Burridge had all along earmarked the Domesday four-year-old as a Singapore Derby horse, but repeated that he still had a few stripes to earn before he fits the bill.
“He is a true stayer. He had four starts in Australia, three over 1400m and once over 1600m and won one race over 1400m,” said the Australian handler.
“At his first start, he was disappointing and then he drew away to a big win over 1600m. I told the owner (Lucky Stable) he was not going to be a sprint distance horse.
“He did it the hard way today when the other horse stuck his neck out. We may back him off now and see how we go on from there.
“My son Wade bought him as a Derby horse. It’s a 1.35 million dollar race and there aren’t that many good stayers among the four-year-olds this year.
“Hopefully, he steps up to the mark.”
The Group 1 Emirates Singapore Derby is the third Leg of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge and is being stepped down from 2000m to 1800m this year. It will be run on July 22.
Boss always knew Dalgety could stay, but said that finding the right race for such a horse would be tricky in Singapore.
“It wasn’t a strong race, but he was always looking for 2000m. Unfortunately, there are not enough such races here,” said the Australian jockey.
“We’ll just have to place him in the right race.”