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Trainer Cliff Brown thought Divided House had a small chance at her comeback race on Friday night and he was proven right in the end
The bonny mare by I Am Invincible had not raced for 131 days, but the Australian handler knows she goes well fresh even if the opposition first-up in the $80,0000 Open Benchmark 74 over 1200m looked quite tough with the likes of The Capital, Super Six and Mr Luck in the line-up.
Ridden by Michael Rodd, Divided House ($36) took no early part in the speed battle, dropping back in the second half of the race while Big Man (Matthew Kellady) led from Super Six (Troy See) upfront.
The complexion of the race did not change much until the last 400m when Big Man relinquished the lead to Super Six who was going a lot better at that stage.
See was on the cusp of a second win after Southern Man won on debut earlier, but Rodd had other ideas as he brought Divided House with a well-timed run on the complete outside. Super Six tried to rally again after Brown’s mare swept past him, but had to concede defeat by three parts of a length.
Mr Luck (Wong Chin Chuen) ran on late to grab third place another three-quarter length away. The winning time was 1min 10.9secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.
“She’s got a good first-up record and she will improve from it. She had a lovely run, and she looked a winner,” said Brown.
“But at some point, I thought she would blow out but she didn’t. This is probably her grade and I will just potter around with her.
“She has been a great advertisement for Singapore to have won five races and won more than $300,000 in prizemoney.”
Rodd said the mare gave him a fairly straightforward ride and he just had to point her in the right direction and push the button at the right time.
“She’s got a lot of ability and a nice turn of foot,” said the Australian jockey.
“She was very quiet and relaxed tonight. Nothing seemed to worry her whereas normally, she gets upset on raceday.
“She didn’t travel that well, and I thought as she doesn’t have that long run, she might be in trouble.
“But because she relaxed so well underneath me, she was able to come away from them in the end.”
