Favourites bite the dust on last day

Punters with hopes that Kranji’s final meeting of the season on Saturday might help them fill their Christmas stockings ended up going home thinking of alternative plans.

Unless they are the sort who like a bit of value.

From 12 races on the card, only two favourites prevailed, the odds-on hot shot Hole In One ($7) and Salamence ($15). A couple were mildly fancied, like Lim’s Zoom ($21) and King’s Speech ($25), but the rest were friendless in the market.

After Hole In One saluted in Race 2, it was pretty much downhill for favourite backers from then on.

The result that was greeted with the most deafening silence was Moongate Star throwing the formbook out of the window with a $200 stunner in the penultimate event, the $70,000 Class 3 race over 1,100m.

The walking wounded who stayed for the so-called Lucky Last would regret not spending their last dollar on the MRT ride home instead.

All eyes were on champion jockey Manoel Nunes, whose fourth title was already all done and dusted two meetings back but who was, strangely, still winless after all of his previous heavily-backed rides came a cropper.

With a gulf of 38 winners between him and runner-up Wong Chin Chuen, nobody really cared if his final score ticked up to 39.

But a champ ending the season on a winless note is just unheard of.

Fans, unsurprisingly, emptied their pockets on the Brazilian’s last ride, aptly-named Coin Toss, who was eventually sent out the warm $12 favourite.

Unfortunately, they were blindsided by a first-time blinkered Big Green Hat ($147), expertly handled by underrated jockey Matthew Kellady, in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1,200m.

Saifudin Ismail was another hoop who waited for the curtains to come down on the 2022 season to get his moment in the sun with a double.

At 54, Kranji’s doyen in the jockeys’ room even punched the air in delight like a teenager after Moongate Star upstaged the better-backed pair of Silent Is Gold and Lord Justice in the day’s highlight.

The Malaysian was capping a relatively quiet season with an unexpected flourish, having earlier saluted aboard Hamama ($38) to bring his 2022 score to 11 winners.

“I think the way the race was run suited the horse. It was a fast race, I know he can finish it off,” said Saifudin.

“He’s also fresh. He jumped quick and was well balanced throughout.

“In the straight, I had a horse close to me. I didn’t want to lose momentum by pulling the whip, so I rode him hands and heels.

“Luckily, he made it all the way to the line.”

Winning trainer Desmond Koh, another racing participant who seldom takes centre stage, albeit he ended up second-best local (ninth on 26 winners) after Jason Ong (fifth on 33), was delighted for the veteran rider and the Atlante six-year-old’s Gold Hill Stable.

“I’m very happy for Saifudin. It’s been a good day for him,” said the Singaporean handler.

“I’m also happy for the owner. For myself, I can’t complain. I wish we had more horses to play with, but we’ll keep working on it.

“The horse was back from a four-month break after he bled, but he’s won his first race right off the bat before. He’s got a good fresh-up record.

“We knew he’d run good, we just didn’t know how good he would be today.”

The day may not have been so good to some from a betting angle, but two jockeys left the course feeling they have looped the loop.

Riding at their farewell meeting, both Australians Danny Beasley and Jake Bayliss managed to get the perfect swansong they had wished for.

Beasley rode a brace aboard Lim’s Zoom and King’s Speech to bring his final Kranji tally over a 12-season stint that began in 2007, to 608 winners. If extended to Asia, that score may go up by one win – and by far the most momentous if he pulls it off.

The 47-year-old still has the all-important mission on Lim’s Kosciuszko, Singapore’s only representative at the Longines Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin on Dec 11.

At 28, Bayliss is a lot younger and has plied his trade at Kranji for only one season, but King Louis’ ($70) win squeezed the Queenslander into the Top 10, just nudging out the suspended Simon Kok, both on 19 winners.

Beasley and Bayliss will continue their riding careers elsewhere, the former in his native Wagga in Australia and the latter in Matamata, New Zealand.