Amazing Breeze can blow 'em away
Last-start runaway winner has improved a lot, will benefit from rookie Akmazani’s 4kg claim
Trainer Jerome Tan’s bargain buy Amazing Breeze appears to be a horse on the rise.
The four-year-old’s last-start second success from 10 outings is testimony to that claim.
I was indeed mesmerised by his scintillating finish on Nov 27, the last day of the 2021 Singapore racing season.
The bay New Zealand-bred trounced his rivals. He made them look like they were standing still, winning by seven lengths in a smart 1min 35.57sec over 1,600m.
Mind you, it was not an ordinary lot, but a field full of proven horses, such as Pennywise, Special Ops, Preditor and Strong N Powerful.
Pennywise, who ran second in that Kranji Stakes B event over 1,600m, is an eight-time winner, including the Group 3 Colonial Chief Stakes in December 2019.
Pennywise has franked the form. The Ricardo Le Grange-trained galloper ran a close second to his stablemate Leatherhead in Class 3 a fortnight ago.
This puts Amazing Breeze in good stead.
The bay gelding has also improved further. His last few gallops were full of gusto. He pulled up wanting more.
Furthermore, his chances will be enhanced with the big drop in class.
From Kranji Stakes B, which is essentially a Class 2 race, he is now in a Class 4 event over 1,400m in the penultimate race at Kranji tomorrow (5pm).
However, he will have to carry the top weight for the class drop.
But his trainer has made the wise move in putting his 4kg-claiming apprentice jockey, Akmazani Mazuki, aboard to bring the 59kg down to a handy 55kg.
If there is a downside, it will be his wide barrier (No. 12 before any withdrawals). But I do not think this will worry him. He is the drop-back-and-run-on type.
Amazing Breeze cost only NZ$6,000 (S$5,553) as a yearling but he has earned about S$120,000 for Applause Racing Stable.
He should have a bright future.
He has proven that, with luck, you can get a good horse for a song, too.
Or even a champion, in some cases. It does not mean you pay big bucks you will get a world-beater.
Horse racing is not like that.
Just look at the differing classic cases of Veandercross and Kiwi, the two fascinating rags-to-riches tales, and Snaafi Dancer, the multi million-dollar dud.
Veandercross and Kiwi cost only NZ$1,000, in what was believed to be bought as farm horses, but became champions with many major-race victories. Kiwi even won the 1983 Melbourne Cup, dubbed as the race that stops a nation.
On the other spectrum, Snaafi Dancer was the first yearling to fetch more than US$10 million (S$13.5 million) at the 1983 Keeneland Select Sale.
With his blue blood, he was sold for the then-record US$10.2 million to Sheikh Mohammed’s Aston Upthorpe Stud, with the prospect of breeding after his racing career.
But the son of champion sire Northern Dancer was “too slow” to be a racehorse. He was sent to stud but had “fertility issues”.
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