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With jockey Olivier Placais suspended, trainer Alwin Tan had been struggling to find a suitable replacement for Nova Strike in the $1 million Group 1 Raffles Cup (1600m) on Sunday – but the staging of an international jockeys challenge at Kranji next Tuesday has indirectly come to his rescue.
Team South Africa made up of Lyle Hewitson, Muzi Yeni and Aldo Domeyer are one of four squads doing battle in the inaugural Premier Gateway International Jockeys Challenge, but decided it would be nice to have a warm-up meeting two days earlier.
With their availability at the Raffles Cup meeting, the Springbok trio along with Australia’s Hugh Bowman have certainly helped plug the current dearth of jockeys, mainly through suspensions. Besides Placais, Alan Munro, Ryan Curatolo and Azhar Ismail are also out on Sunday while the other 13 Raffles Cup runners had already been paired with a senior jockey.
With Bowman already snapped up by Lee Freedman on Circuit Land, Tan had to pick among the three South Africans, and admitted he had heard precious little about the trio before.
After doing some research and going with the recommendation of a few connections familiar with South African racing, he plumped for Yeni.
“It’s been a tough job looking for a jockey for Nova Strike,” said Tan.
“At first, we thought of Franco Da Silva, who rode here at the KRA (Korea Racing Authority) Trophy meeting, but he told us he couldn’t confirm. In the end, he is riding Countofmontecristo for Michael Clements, but I did give him a ride on My Win in Race 2, and three rides on Friday (Bell Air, Lady Boss and Happy Saga).
“There weren’t many jockeys left here with so many of them suspended. And then, I heard about the four jockeys coming up for the Raffles Cup.
“I didn’t really know them, but after checking their records, we decided Muzi Yeni would be a good fit. Nova Strike needs a strong rider and we saw from some of his past race videos how strong he was.
“The owners and myself are very happy to have booked him on Nova Strike.”
Tan has even thrown a bonus ride at the nine-time Northern Cape champion jockey – My Horse in the $80,000 Stepitup 2015 Stakes, a Kranji Stakes C speed dash over 1000m.
Tan said Nova Strike, who won the Group 3 Moonbeam Vase (1600m) with Placais (his partner at his last five runs) three weeks ago, has trained on since landing that second feature race after the Group 3 Colonial Chief Stakes (1700m) (with Manoel Nunes up) last December.
“Nova Strike has maintained his condition. He had his last gallop with my track rider on Tuesday, and I would say he looks in fantastic shape,” said the Singaporean handler.
“Obviously, this is a tougher test as he will face new opponents. It’s definitely another level of challenge.
“He carried less weight in the Moonbeam Vase whereas the Raffles Cup is a weight-for-age race. I hope he can manage and run a good race for us.”
A 10-time winner, the six-year-old chestnut Red Giant has drawn seven and is up against an armada of big guns in the first Leg of the Singapore Triple Crown series, such as Jupiter Gold, Debt Collector, Circuit Land, Elite Invincible, Clarton Super, Elite Excalibur, Mr Clint, Countofmontecristo, Preditor, all proven Group winners, not to mention a South African Group 1 winner in the impressive Noah From Goa.
Perhaps less daunting is the task awaiting Tan’s promising youngster Galvarino on Friday. The son of Stryker came close to upstaging hot favourite Lim’s Lightning in the Group 2 juvenile feature, the Aushorse Golden Horseshoe (1200m) back in July.
Raced by the same connections as Maximus, Tan’s recent unsuccessful Korean raider, Galvarino is resuming in Friday night’s $85,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1100m on Polytrack.
Going with his easy winning barrier trial on September 13, it would not surprise anyone if Galvarino opens his account at his first outing as a three-year-old.
Tan said he was actually happier with his demeanour before loading than during the easy win.
“He had some barrier issues last time as a two-year-old. That’s why I gave him a long break, just so he forgets about barriers,” he said.
“The break has done him a whole lot of good as it didn’t give him too much stress. He had to take two corrective barrier tests and passed both.
“I hope he has improved further during the break. The horse is well, even if I wished he had drawn better than 11, which is the only dark point.”
