Patience set to pay off for Southern Master

Southern Master believes in taking his time.

Since having his first start as Crystal Sixty at Kranji on Dec 27, 2020, he has had just seven more outings – with his best showing being a fourth placing in a Class 4 race over 1,200m on May 14, 2022.

That was after he had a name change to Southern Master.

So, they say, patience is a virtue and impatience is not a crime.

Well trainer Jason Lim, for one, must certainly believe it is true.

If it is any consolation, Southern Master has been grinding away and doing some good work at the trials – especially at his last two morning hit-outs when Manoel Nunes was in charge.

Southern Master finished a solid second behind Galaxy Star in a trial on March 16 and, following that, on March 28, he went out and beat the very talented Knippenberg.

That day, he clocked 1min 00.54sec for the 1,000m dash.

The good work continued on Tuesday morning when, under brilliant sunshine, Southern Master won his trial in a time of 1:00.82.

So, the margin of victory was just a head.

But, on the day, he beat stablemate Royal Commander rather impressively. And yes, Nunes’ feet were planted firmly in the stirrups.

So, Southern Master did not break the minute mark. But, sometimes at the trials, that is not important.

LIke on Tuesday, what mattered more was the fact that he showed intent and purpose and the victory was not handed to him on a silver platter.

He had to fight for it.

Well, it may have been the plan all along that the stablemates slugged it out. If it was, it was a good plan and it worked.

Royal Commander and Southern Master went at it hammer and tongs.

They traded blows down the backstretch and there was no let-up when they straightened up, locked together, for the run home.

Indeed, it was only 100m out that Southern Master got the upper hand.

Then again, jockey Koh Teck Huat, on Royal Commander, made sure Nunes fought for the win.

A six-year-old chestnut by Exceed And Excel, Southern Master is certainly long overdue for a win and it is time he brings his trial form to the races.

As for Royal Commander, some may say that he has been there and done that.

Well, no argument there.

In a career spanning 30 starts, he has picked up five wins, two seconds and $186,000 in prizemoney.

Any which way you look at it, those are nice numbers for the Moshe six-year-old formerly known as Universal Empire.

What is not so nice is the fact that he has been winless for 19 months – that last win coming on Sept 18, 2021.

It has been a long wait between drinks. Perhaps, and hopefully, this last trial will put him in a good place.

Later, and in the last of three trials held that day, Nunes and Lim again teamed up to grab the goodies with Supermax.

The six-year-old did the job in 1:01.55, beating Magdalene by half-a-length, with Maximum Control holding down third spot, a nose away.

However, if there was anything to take away from that hit-out, it had to be Magdalene’s showing.

The Michael Clements-trained mare deserved better.

Ridden from the front by Calvin Habib, she attempted to stave off the challenge thrown at her by Supermax, who kept lifting the tempo from his spot wide out.

Magdalene tried her best to hold him off. Indeed, there was no economy in effort but the momentum was with the winner and Magdalene had to concede.

Still, it was a good show from the American-bred four-year-old by Vancouver.

As long as she could, she gave as good as she got and, on the day, was beaten by the better horse.

Keep her on your radar.

It sure looks like she is coming along just fine.