By Alan Carasso
Looking the unlikeliest of winners for most of Friday's IRT Juvenile S. at Kranji, second betting choice Ferocious lived up to his name with a flying finish to scoop this 5th leg of the Golden Horseshoe style with room to spare.
Off slowly from gate five and at the very back for the opening 100 metres or so, Ferocious had tugged Rizwan Shafiq up into about mid-division in a bunched field, but was short of room and was shuffled back to third last on the far turn. Steadied off heels with a bit more than a quarter-mile to travel, Ferocious began to make headway at the 200m, knifed through between Charger and Mokastar inside the final sixteenth and pulled away to score comfortably in the end.
“He was a little slow out of the gates, which threw off our plan to sit handier,” winning trainer Mark Walker commented. “But Shafiq was able to hold him together and gave him a lovely patient ride. When the gaps came, the horse quickened away really well. He was a bit of a colt when he first came to us and we gelded him. I think he's a really nice horse.”
Ferocious, who hails from the extended female family of the good Hong Kong sprinter Blizzard (Aus) (Starcraft {NZ}), has a weanling full brother. Wynnstay Avenue was most recently bred to Shooting to Win (Aus) (Northern Meteor {Aus}). Torryburn Stud is also the breeder of the promising undefeated young Hong Kong galloper Hot King Prawn (Aus) (Denman {Aus}). Click for the Singapore Turf Club chart. VIDEO.
3rd-KRA, IRT JUVENILE S. (5th Leg Singapore Golden Horseshoe Series), Cond., S$90,000 (A$85,685), 1200mT, 1:10.51, gd.
1–+FEROCIOUS (AUS), 121, g, 2, Sebring (Aus)–Wynnstay Avenue (Aus), by Fastnet Rock (Aus). (A$95,000 Ylg '16 INGEAS; NZ$120,000 2yo '16 NZBRTR). O-Synthetic Stable; B-Torryburn Stud, Maxann P/L (NSW); T-Mark Walker; J-R Shafiq; S$53,500. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, S$53,500.
2–Charger (Aus), 121, c, 2, Dick Turpin (Ire)–Californium (Aus), by Geiger Counter. (A$50,000 Ylg '15 MMPER).[bullet ad=”irt-shell”]3–Mokastar (Aus), 121, g, 2, Poet's Voice (GB)–Saddler's Silk (Aus), by Barathea (Ire). (A$35,000 Ylg '16 MMPER; A$110,000 2yo '16 MMGC2YO).[bullet ad=”irt-shell”]Margins: 2 1/4, NK, 2HF. Odds: 2.60, 10.80, 2.40.
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