3 minute read

Fresh off a winning double last Sunday, Australian conditioner Cliff Brown will be looking to add to that success on Friday night.

Brown saddled Gold Dancer and Beauty Supreme to win their respective 1400m victories last Sunday and is hoping the latter can make the mark at a higher grade.

Beauty Supreme is one of three horses that Kwok Siu Ming of Beauty Stable has in Singapore at present and Brown explained there may be more on the way.

“Mr Kwok is a newcomer to Singapore racing and has one horse with Michael Clements and two with me and is looking more closely at Singapore racing,” said Brown.

“He has a number of horses racing in Hong Kong and it was good to get a winner for him. Beauty Supreme is the only one of the two he has with me that has raced and the horse had been unlucky a couple of times before winning on the weekend.

“It was great he was able to fly in from Hong Kong for the meeting and be a part of the win.

“It adds that little bit more to the win for everyone in the stable when the owners can be on-course and enjoy their success.

“It was a good win and I think he’ll have some fun with this horse in Singapore and we should be able to pick up a few more winners for him along the way.”

While Beauty Supreme won’t be in action on Friday night a promising member of his team makes his reappearance in what Brown hopes might lead to contesting some Group 1 races down the track.

Brown has Zac Spirit engaged in the $75,000 Class 3 Stakes over 1200m with the gelding lining-up for his first run since June.

He will have the services of Joao Moreira..

Zac Spirit contested the final two legs of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge back in April and May, finishing third behind Stepitup in the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic over 1400m before running fourth to that galloper in the Group 1 Singapore Guineas over 1600m.

Following his fourth placing in the Guineas, Zac Spirit came out and was successful in a Novice Stakes over 1400m on June 7 before going for a spell.

A former Brown member Clear For Action, a placegetter in the 2011 Singapore Guineas, kicked off his campaign with victory in a Class 3 Stakes over 1200m in September of that year before going on to finish second to Better Than Ever in the Group 1 Kranji Mile and Group 1 Raffles Cup the following month.

Clear For Action unfortunately went amiss not long after his Raffles Cup placing but has returned to winning form recently down in Melbourne at Moonee Valley at his second start after a long break.

Brown has long held a high opinion of Zac Spirit and is hoping the son of Flying Spur can follow in the footsteps of Clear For Action and measure up to Group 1 company.

“The plan is to follow a similar path to Clear For Action and see whether he is good enough to warrant taking on Group 1 company,” said Brown.

“After his last win we had those thoughts and we still would like to go that way. He’s a promising horse but he’s still got some improvement to make. We’ll see how he goes on Friday night and work out from there where we go.

“Ideally we would like to give him another run before making a final decision on the Kranji Mile (on October 6) and the Raffles Cup (on October 27).

“That’s what we did with Clear For Action and it all nearly worked out for us.

“He’s grown a bit during his break and he trialled well recently and his work since has been good.

“While it’s a small field it looks competitive and Simple Pleasures did come close to beating Stepitup at 1200m last time in, so he’s going to be very hard to beat.”