3 minute read

​If someone had told trainer Bruce Marsh shortly after Street Legal’s first win for him in a lowly Class 5 race over 1800m a year ago that he could be a Singapore Gold Cup contender the following year, he would have probably told that person he did not have all his wits about him.

After the son of Street Cry went on to add four more wins since that Class 5 win, the latest being a runaway success in Sunday’s $95,000 Phumelela Gold Enterprises Trophy, an Open Benchmark 89 race (2200m), Marsh was probably still pinching himself as he found himself naming the time-honoured Group 1 2200m race sponsored by Longines on November 17 as the eight-year-old gelding’s new target this campaign.

Ridden with great confidence by Joao Moreira, Street Legal followed favourite Cannon Hill (Barend Vorster) throughout the race before asserting his superiority with a pulverising acceleration that saw him spreadeagle the small field of six runners in the home straight to romp in by more than five lengths from Cannon Hill, himself a Gold Cup hope for the Patrick Shaw yard, with Tenzing (Shafiq Rizuan) third another two lengths away.

Sent out as the $11 favourite, Street Legal was posting his eighth win at his 60th start in a career that first began in Malaysia (three starts for one win under Peter Tennent) before his owner, the Drummond Red Stable sent him down South to ex-Kranji trainer John Meagher.

After the veteran Australian handler left Kranji in January 2011, Street Legal spent five months with another ex-Kranji trainer, Basil Marcus, without winning before finally settling for the Marsh yard, where the late bloomer has really thrived since that Class 5 floodgates-opener to now stand at the doorstep of Singapore’s most prestigious staying race.

“Who would have thought, eh? He’s racing like a two-year-old and for sure the Gold Cup is his target now,” said New Zealand-born Marsh who has yet to add his name to the handicap feature since he began training in Singapore in 2005.

“The pace was just nice for him, Joao sat behind the favourite and the race panned out just the way we wanted. At the home turn, he was clearly travelling the best and he just put the race away in good fashion.

“I’ll probably give him another run, quite possibly the El Dorado Classic, but at the same time, you wouldn’t want him to pick up too much weight!”

Run on October 27, the El Dorado Classic, previously the Mandai Classic Stakes, is the ideal Gold Cup trial as it is also run under handicap conditions and over the same distance of 2200m.

Moreira, who has now partnered Street Legal to his last four wins, said the way the race went without a hitch worked in their favour.

“The pace of the race was just nice for him. They went hard in front and all I had to do is follow the favourite, Barend’s horse,” said the champion jockey who was enjoying another prolific day having already booted home a quartet of winners after Cheetah King, Euro Zone and Toast's Angel scored earlier.

“All I had to do was to make sure he had a clear run at the top of the straight. He got a beautiful run throughout and I had so much horse under me that I knew he would win easily.”

At the start, Casino King took up the running as expected for apprentice A’Isisuhairi Kasim to set a hard pace to the race, with My Dancing Duel (Alan Munro) stalking up on his girth while the rest of the field was fairly strung out.

As Moreira inched Street Legal closer down the back when Arabian Night (Lisa Allpress) suddenly dropped out of the race, it was soon clear the leading bunch, including Cannon Hill, were already under the gun while Street Legal was just cruising. That impression soon materialised in no uncertain terms when Street Legal left his five rivals in his wake for a most dominant victory. The winning time was 2mins 14.64secs.

With that seventh win, Street Legal has now brought his earnings past the $410,000 mark for the Drummond Red Stable.