3 minute read

Heralded as a new emerging force on the global racing stage, the China Horse Club led in its first winner in Singapore on Sunday when former French galloper Tropaios saluted in the $75,000 Revolte 2008 Stakes Open Benchmark 74 (1600m).

The Chinese-owned racing outfit has been building up its team of horses from various shopping sprees around the world, and Tropaios is one such recent acquisition who was sent to trainer Michael Freedman to race at Kranji, a centre which figures prominently among the countries where the China Horse Club intends to establish itself.

The English-bred four-year-old by Excellent Art was a Listed race winner for trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias (2012 SIA Cup winner Chinchon’s trainer) in France before he went under the hammer at the Arqana Sale, a racehorse auction held during the famous Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe meeting at Longchamp.

Freedman revealed that the former four-time French winner was specifically sent to Singapore with the Emirates Singapore Derby in mind. The Group 1 race over 2000m is the third and final Leg of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge and will be run on July 14.

“Tropaios was the China Horse Club’s first entry in Singapore and it’s great to see him win at only his second run,” he said. “They’re a very exciting new outfit who hopefully can get into racing in a big way.

“The owners bought this horse at the Arqana sale in France last year. They sent me a shortlist of six horses and I picked this one from the videos.

“The idea is to have a Derby horse here and hit the ground running. He is a four-year-old and he is bred to stay and he is certainly stepping in the right direction.

“He was a Listed winner before he was sold, but there is always a query how such horses will settle here.

“But it was a good effort to back up with 59kgs after his good first-up run, and especially as he’s more used to the other way of going (clockwise) as well.”

Settled in a one-out one-back spot from the jump, Tropaios kept a watchful eye on proceedings as Musketeer (Alan Munro) set the pace before he asserted his superiority inside the last 300m to score by 1 ¼ lengths from Musketeer with Spyder (Joao Moreira) boxing on for third another half-a-length away. The winning time was 1min 35.33secs.

Brown, who was also aboard Tropaios at his debut fourth to Damo in a Kranji Stakes C race over 1400m, said the winner was still pretty strange to the course, but was certainly not without ability.

“He’s still a fairly highly-strung horse and needs to settle down more in his races,” said the Australian jockey.

“He’s really improved since his last run. I was actually surprised with the way he’s carried so much weight and still win second-up.

“He’s still not used to the Melbourne way of going (anti-clockwise), but he stretched out good in the end. The more he races, the better he will get.”