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French jockey Olivier Placais sent a strong signal he should not be written off too soon from the title race after he posted an early riding double on Sunday.
While all the focus had shifted to a two-horse race hotting up between Vlad Duric (62 wins) and Michael Rodd (61 wins) in the Singapore jockeys’ premiership, Placais had lost a bit of ground in third place on 54 winners, but his brace (with a chance of more to come later in the day) has narrowed the gap down a little.
Placais kicked off proceedings aboard the Daniel Meagher-trained Howl ($23) in the $45,000 Quechua 2017 Stakes, a Class 4 Non Premier race over 1200m before doubling the dose on $14 favourite Top Knight for Michael Clements two events later in the $45,000 Stepitup 2015 Stakes (1600m).
On both winners, The Conductor, as he is often referred to at Kranji, was shown at his forceful best, extracting the best out of his mounts as they came off handy spots to strike the front halfway up the straight.
While Howl had to dig deeper to hold off a stinging challenge from Wild Bee (Craig Grylls) by half-a-length, Top Knight had a slightly cosier trip to the line. The Zoustar three-year-old did have a pack of horses chasing hard once he overhauled Hyde Park (Duric), but he eventually cleared out to score by two lengths from Verizon (Glen Boss) with second favourite Centenary Diamond (Rodd) third another half-a-length away.
The winning time was 1min 35.51secs for the mile on the Long Course.
“He showed a very nice acceleration inside the last two furlongs. The more I asked him, the stronger he was to the line,” said Placais after he brought up his second winner.
“He needs more distance. Actually, I didn’t have the perfect race at the back, but when Vlad led (on Hyde Park), it worked out better with the tempo going up.
“I didn’t want to be boxed in. I think having him on the outside is better for him.”
Clements said Top Knight, who is by Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Zoustar is shaping up as a horse looking for more ground. At his first three outings between 1200m and 1400m when ridden by Boss, he was always held up for a run and hit the line strongly at the business end.
“From the way he won today, he can get further, but I will still keep him to the mile for now,” said the Zimbabwean-born handler.
“The owners wanted to put Olivier on and he’s given him a great ride.
“He’s a very nice horse that we bought at the Magic Millions breeze-ups at the Gold Coast last year. I will set him for the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge next year, including the Singapore Guineas.”
The Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) is the third Leg of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge and is normally run in May.
With two wins and one third under the belt in only four starts, Top Knight has now taken his stakes earnings past the $80,000 mark for the Falcon Racing No 7 Stable.