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It’s been a long time between drinks for Knight’s Command, but the wait had been well worth it, especially given his litany of problems, after he took out the $75,000 Class 3 race (1600m) on Sunday.
A three-time winner from only five starts in his native New Zealand, the lightly-raced Pins six-year-old has not quite reproduced the same form at Kranji, scoring only once from 18 starts in a Class 4 race over 1600m last April.
Encouraged by that breakthrough, trainer Bruce Marsh had since stepped him up in grade to test his mettle further. Though Knight's Command had not since revisited the winner’s circle, his runs had not been all that bad, considering the many challenges he presented in terms of stable management.
Twice he came back lame post-race, even running a fast-finishing to World War once, but Marsh knew that was just the tip of the iceberg, as other niggles lying beneath had to be addressed.
The way Knight's Command came from near-last to best Sunday's field made up of handy Class 3 gallopers like Riedel, stablemate Cool Customer and Super Junior was certainly a great source of satisfaction for Marsh and the connections, the TITS & LFS Stable.
Full Toss (Rueven Ravindra) set a steady tempo to the race with Solitaire (Oscar Chavez) in close attendance while favourite Riedel (Shafiq Rizuan) was at the rear and Knight’s Command was dwelling even further afield, ahead of just Iluminado (Noh Senari).
But as the field packed up by the top of the straight, Knight’s Command had already taken closer order with a sweeping run that had taken him within touching distance from the leading protagonists made up of Super Junior (Nathan Berry), Cool Customer (Corey Brown) and Vertical Start (Barend Vorster) while the swoopers like Riedel and World War (Alan Munro) were also chiming in.
Well ridden by Zuriman, Knight’s Commander ($42), however, came with a late flourish to take home the first prize, scoring by 1 ¼ lengths from Super Junior with Cool Customer third another neck away. The winning time was 1min 39.19secs.
“He’s always been a lovely horse with loads of ability, but unfortunately with loads of problems, too,” said Marsh.
“He’s always had bad joints and a bad back, and I think we left him as a colt too long. That was why he was always hanging in so badly.
“We put on some new gear today, the right-sided blinkers and I think they definitely helped him. On his work and his last run I was confident he would run well today.”
Knight’s Command has been fitted with different types of headgear at his previous 18 starts, even donning blinkers at his debut. The visor was probably seen as the permanent solution after it came on at his only previous win, but Marsh’s latest tinkering has proven to be yet another masterstroke.
