Price, Marshall snap up last tickets to ride at Kranji
The Singapore Turf Club’s (STC) licensing panel is still busy printing off new licences even with only around two weeks left to go before Kranji closes down on Oct 5.
Two of those last tickets to ride have gone to Will Price and Taylor Marshall, who hail from Melbourne and Brisbane respectively.
Besides being first-time visitors, they both carry famous names in Australian racing, with one of them even ringing a bell with the more senior local racegoers.
Price’s father Simon was a popular jockey at Bukit Timah in the 1990s, with the 1998 Singapore Gold Cup aboard Three Crowns as his biggest claim to fame.
The apple did not fall far from the tree. Showing potential since his 2019 debut, Price won the Melbourne champion apprentice jockey title in the 2020/2021 season.
The 24-year-old winner of 220-odd races has two Group 3 wins to his name, the Lord Reims Stakes aboard Canford in February 2022 followed by the Group 3 Auraria Stakes atop My Whisper two months later.
Price goes to scale at 48kg. His STC licence will run from Sept 28 to Oct 5.
Marshall’s father John did not ride here, but was among one of the leading Sydney jockeys in the same era as Price Sr.
The late jockey is linked with top quality horses like Beau Zam and Sky Chase, with his career highlight being the 1999 Melbourne Cup with Rogan Josh.
Marshall Jr, 31, has not reached such heights in 11 years of riding between Sydney and his current Brisbane base, but does boast 360 winners, including one “black type”, Apache Chase in the Group 3 Vo Rogue Plate in 2021.
Unlike Price, Marshall will ride at only the Singapore Gold Cup meeting on Oct 5, and has already been booked on the Ricardo Le Grange-trained Hole In One in the glamour event over 2,000m.
Also a lightweight, he tips the scales at 49kg.
Meanwhile, another Australian newcomer, Melbourne jockey Blaike McDougall is yet to ride at his first Singapore race meeting.
His licence was supposed to run from Sept 7 to Oct 5, but he has already missed the Sept 7 and 14 meetings, and he is not carded at this Sept 21 meeting either.
It is understood that rides have not been easy to come by.
With Tim Fitzsimmons’ Golden Monkey out of the Singapore Gold Cup, his regular partner Chad Schofield will subsequently not fly from Sydney for the assignment.
Fitzsimmons decided to pull his stable star out after his fifth place to Lim’s Kosciuszko in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (1,800m) on Sept 7.
“He ran fine (in the QEII Cup) but I just didn’t think he would run a strong 2,000m,” he said.
“I’m not disappointed at all. We’ve always wanted to wait and see how he runs in the QEII Cup before deciding on anything.
“He’s been very good to the owners. We don’t want to run him in the Gold Cup for the sake of running.”
On the other hand, STC licensee Ronnie Stewart will be back to ride Fitzsimmons’ other runner King Of Sixty-One. The Australian jockey, who already boasts three wins with El Dorado (2008, 2009 and 2011) in the time-honoured race, will attempt to become the absolute record holder with four wins.
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