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Trainer and jockey had slightly different takes on Sun Pittsburgh reverting to turf on Friday night, but in the end, it was of little significance – the versatile mare made it back-to-back victories.
While Japanese trainer Hideyuki Takaoka was not too concerned about the Japanese-bred daughter of Storming Home stepping out on grass in the $60,000 Class 4 Premier race over 1600m, French jockey Olivier Placais had a few misgivings, especially after he drove her to a resounding win on Polytrack (1700m) at her second Kranji start a month ago.
Placais was also aboard the four-year-old mare at her debut at Kranji, which was on turf back in mid-March. She finished out of the placings, but she also had mitigating factors. Besides the fact she was at her first spin around the course, she also copped a check in the straight.
Three races later, and Sun Pittsburgh proved she was as prolific on either surface – and certainly looks destined towards a bright racing future at Kranji, quite the opposite of the way she was heading in Japan if her lacklustre record of zero win and one third place in 15 starts is anything to go by.
After enjoying an ideal soft run scraping paint behind the leader Waialae (Craig Grylls), the yellow-hooded mare was straight on the bridle when Placais launched her at the 200m.
Waialae tried to conjure up the same second wind that saw him go all the way at his last start, but probably softened up by the pestering presence of Sebastian Bach (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) and Turf Beauty (Alan Munro) for most of the way, he knocked up this time.
Sun Pittsburgh ($57) shot past him with ease before gamely staving off Gold City (Barend Vorster) by three parts of a length with Kokoni (Glen Boss) third another three-quarter length away. The winning time was 1min 36.54secs for the 1600m on the Short Course.
“She’s a nice mare, a nice Japanese-bred four-year-old that the owner told me would be better on turf,” said Takaoka, a renowned conditioner of mares with past greats like Better Life and Jolie’s Shinju good cases in point.
“Yes, she won on Polytrack at her last start, but it’s the much deeper sand in Japan that she doesn’t like. She also liked tonight’s distance.
“She had a few problems in quarantine when she got here, took a while to acclimatise, but she has proven to be quite a handy sort with two wins in a row now.”
Placais said he had always held a high opinion of Sun Pittsburgh from Day 1, but the switch to turf was the only factor bugging him a tad.
“She was very unlucky at her first run, and she won really well at her next start on Poly,” said the French rider.
“I was a bit worried she was coming back on turf, but she surprised me. There was a good speed to the race and I was right behind the leader saving ground.
“Once I got her to change gears, she was faster than everyone else. The only thing is she had this tendency of hanging out, like in the straight when she had her neck going the other way.
“But she was really strong to the line nonetheless. We haven’t seen the best of her yet.”
A stakes winner of around US$28,000 in Japan, Sun Pittsburgh has now added around $45,000 to the overall kitty for the Samurai Stable thanks to her two wins in Singapore.