Quartet on Singapore Gold Cup mission
Australian-based South African jockey Barend Vorster and Australians Craig Williams, William Pike and Patrick Moloney have been granted permission to ride on Dester Singapore Gold Cup Day on Sunday.
The four, all no strangers to Singapore racegoers, have been engaged to ride in the $1 million Group 1 Gold Cup over 2,000m.
Vorster is booked to ride Gold Strike for Cliff Brown as well as Rocket Star for Ricardo Le Grange in the $175,000 Group 3 Saas Fee Stakes.
Williams, who won the world-renowned Melbourne Cup yesterday aboard Wow And Declare, is on Mr Clint for trainer Lee Freedman.
The 42-year-old captured the Gold Cup on the Stephen-Gray-trained Bahana in 2016.
Bahana will be ridden by Moloney on Sunday, while Pike will ride one of the favourites, King Louis, for Le Grange.
Vorster, 42, plied his trade at Kranji for 16 years, amassing close to 800 winners, before relocating to Adelaide, Australia. He was crowned Singapore champion jockey at his very first season in 2004.
Williams, an eight-time Melbourne champion jockey, returned to Kranji for a similar mission last year, finishing seventh aboard Sky Rocket for Gray again.
Pike, the leading jockey in Perth, is a regular short-term visitor at feature race meetings in Singapore.
The 11-time Perth champion jockey finished a narrow second on King Louis, beaten a nose by I'm Incredible in the $800,000 Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup over 1,800m at his last visit on Oct 20.
The closest he came to winning the Gold Cup was in 2017, when again a nose-second to Gilt Complex aboard Bahana.
Moloney spent one month, from July 29 July to Aug 31, at Kranji, riding four winners and 11 placings from 42 rides.
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