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The issues that used to plague Quicksilver at the barrier gates looked to be behind him after he overcame a wide draw to break his duck in Friday’s $75,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1200m.
The Patrick Shaw-trained galloper had yet to make an appearance in the winners’ circle prior to this race and much of the blame was apportioned to him being uneasy in the pens. The Singapore Turf Club’s assistant starter John Pepe was roped in by Shaw’s camp to help school the three-year-old gelding in a bid to right the problem.
The $121 longshot showed no signs of difficulty at the gates this time round as he was bounced out of gate number 14 by Nooresh Juglall to take the early lead, before relinquishing it to stablemate Terms Of Reference (Barend Vorster) and I’m Kool (Alan Munro) just as they entered the first turn.
As the field straightened, it was increasingly looking like a two-horse race between the two Patrick Shaws as Quicksilver went after Terms Of Reference. With 200m to go, Quicksilver displayed a terrific turn of foot to take him past the leader and he went on to take the race in a winning time of 1min 10.8secs.
Terms Of Reference had to settle for second place one-and-three-quarter lengths astern with Lucky Lincoln (Zuriman Zulkifli) third, a further three-parts-of-a-length away.
Shaw had no doubt about who deserved the plaudits for Quicksilver’s winning performance.
“Being problematic in the stall was his (Quicksilver) main problem,” said the South African handler.
“We must thank John Pepe and his team for all the hard work he has been putting in to correct it. They did an excellent job as you can see.
“We would also like to say well done to Boland Stud where we bought him, Avontuur Stud who stands the stallion Var and the stud manager Pippa Mickleburgh. They have been very kind to us and we would like to share this win with them.”
Juglall, who is on his third ride on Quicksilver, was glad to see the son of Var finally showing his true colours.
“We have been very patient with this horse and tonight he has proven that he has got the class,” said the Mauritian hoop.
“This horse has ability. Towards the end when I asked the question, he just took off.”
From a future perspective, Quicksilver looks like he will be kept in the sprints for his next few races.
“He looks like he will be a good sprinter. We will keep him at 1200m for the time being and see how he progresses,” said Shaw.
With this win, Quicksilver has brought home stakes earnings in excess of $42,000 for the Avengers Stable.
