Jin Sakamoto revving up

Remember the name Jin Sakamoto. With a stylish moniker like that, it should be easy.

No, we are not talking about any Japanese individual but a new horse to the Singapore racing scene.

The New Zealand-bred five-year-old, who raced previously in Australia, is under the care of Kranji-based trainer Richard Lim.

Owned by Jin Stable, the bay gelding gained many followers on Thursday morning after his impressive trial victory.

Ridden by Lim himself, Jin Sakamoto disputed the lead with War Room (Vlad Duric) and Super Pan Swiftly (Manoel Nunes) racing to the 600m. The rest of the field were in a trial of their own.

It was still a line of three up to the 200m mark. There, Super Pan Swiftly ran contrary to his name. He slowed down, leaving Jin Sakamoto and War Room to kick away to settle the issue.

At the post, Jin Sakamoto won by just a nose. The winning time was only a fraction below the one-minute mark, 59.95sec, for the Polytrack 1,000m.

He was having the blinkers test and the gear seemed to have sparked him up.

It was his second trial at Kranji. His first on Aug 10, sans blinkers, yielded a 7½-length fourth behind Last Supper.

So it was a huge improvement in just two weeks.

And, as we all know now, the James Peters-trained Last Supper went on to create a big impression with his superb first-up victory with Duric astride last Sunday.

It augurs well for Jin Sakamoto.

While new to Singapore, the horse is an old hand in Australia.

Bred in New Zealand, he raced 14 times Down Under as Murrami Express for a win, three seconds and four thirds. He amassed A$73,710 (S$64,400).

His only success was quite long ago – on May 14, 2021. It was over 1,225m on a soft track at Geelong.

The son of Shamexpress and Miss Avalon was a juvenile then. He was trained by the Flemington-based Danny O’Brien.

Brett Prebble, no stranger to Singapore racegoers, was the pilot.

The former Hong Kong-based jockey won three KrisFlyer International Sprints (atop Sacred Kingdom in 2009 and with Lucky Nine in 2013 and 2014).

Based on his Australian record, Jin Sakamoto has been allotted 59 points on the Singapore circuit and slots into Class 4.

While he is quite happy with the improvement made with the aid of blinkers, Lim feels Jin Sakamoto still needs another trial before making his Kranji debut.

“The last trial we put him behind and he didn’t want to let go, so I decided to put the blinkers on. He seems much better but he is still not fully ‘let go’ yet,” said the former champion jockey.

“I will give him one more trial before I run him – probably two weeks later – and then run him a week after that.

“I’m still not sure over what distance, but I think we’ll keep him over sprints first for now. He’s quite a genuine horse, that’s why I bought him.”

With a name like that, one would have thought the owner is a Japanese or a fan of a Japanese boy band member by that name.

But the first-time owner is a Singaporean.

“This owner is local, actually. Jin Sakamoto is his nickname, that’s why he named the horse Jin Sakamoto,” said Lim.