3 minute read
Quiet for a while, the Alwin Tan camp got a timely morale booster in the shape of a training double with Revolution and Rich Fortune on Friday night.
While the current campaign has not been all that sluggish (seventh on 28 winners, 13 off leader Shane Baertschiger), the 2016 Singapore champion trainer had not saddled a winner for just under a month. Tan last visited the winner’s stall when he incidentally scooped up another double with Nova Classic and Big Banker on July 27.
Tan has been sounding the alarm he was facing a tougher second half to the 2018 season, with the dwindling string in his yard in the last six months or so his main gripe.
But just-turned-three Revolution coming up trumps in the $85,000 Restricted Maiden race (1200m) and old stalwart Rich Fortune getting up in the $38,000 Kranji Stakes D Division 1 race (1100m) may have fittingly heralded the change in fortune Tan has been praying for.
One (Revolution) represents the future as the three-year-old colt by Unencumbered was at only his second start while the other (Rich Fortune, a six-year-old by Keeper) was at his 47th outing for a sixth win after a roller-coaster career that saw him even rub shoulders with the likes of Debt Collector during the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge campaign in 2016 before plummeting down to Class 4 level.
To see Rich Fortune ($34) still fly the banner for the old boys and Revolution ($33) signal the coming of age of the next generation had Tan in a slightly more bullish mood on Friday night, more so when it came as a nice kickalong ahead of his Korean trip with Maximus running in the 1 billion won ($1.2 million) Group 1 Keeneland Korea Cup (1800m) next Sunday week (September 9).
“This is a nice booster to us. We had no winners for a while and everybody was quite upset,” said the Singaporean handler.
“But we’ve kept trying hard even if it’s not been easy with the horse population dropping. I hope that double has brought the luck back.
“I remember a couple of years back, we had a similar quiet time, and then we got a few winners just before the Korea races (Infantry represented him in the Korea Cup, albeit without success).
“Maybe it was the same kickstart we needed tonight. We’ve also got the Moonbeam Vase coming up next Sunday (September 2) with Nova Strike running for us, so we needed a few winners to get the momentum going.
“Revolution showed potential at his first start, but he was going on Polytrack this time. I was a bit worried when he dropped to last but Alysha rode him very patiently.
“It’s my first win with Alysha. I’ve put her on before and she sure can ride.
“CC Wong also showed his own judgement on Rich Fortune. He told me he would warm the horse up behind the barriers as he was dropping back in trip, and it seems to have done the trick.
“He settled him at the back and kept pushing him all out on the outside. All credit to CC for the win.”
Rich Fortune certainly looked a forlorn hope at the 300m, still seeing them all about six lengths astern. Favourite Honor (Olivier Placais) took some time to go through his gears, but the moment he did, he looked like he would justify his $15 tag as he stuck to the task manfully.
But Rich Fortune came swooping down right on the outside to score a last-gasp win by a neck from Honor with Metagross (Shafrizal Saleh) third another half-a-length away. The winning time was 1min 6.74secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
With that sixth win, Rich Fortune has certainly lived up to his name with prizemoney that has edged past the $280,000 mark for the Eight Eight One Stable.