South Of The River sweeps his rivals away
This is the South Of The River that we have been waiting to see and he extends away – an arrogant win, blurted Singapore Turf Club commentator Patrick Comerford.
It was apt and truly so, as the Michael Clements-trained four-year-old Australian-bred tore away to win by seven lengths in Saturday’s $20,000 Open Maiden event over the Polytrack 1,000m.
You see, the handsome bay/brown gelding was backed down as the $14 favourite in his debut after his two impressive trial wins. But he could finish only ninth behind Stenmark in a $75,000 Novice event over 1,200m on turf on Nov 14.
The Stipendiary Stewards’ report stated that the horse raced greenly and commenced to overrace in the middle stages when in restricted room. He then failed to respond when his rider asked for an effort.
So, it was back to the drawing board. South Of The River won his trial again on Dec 28. He also continued to shine during trackwork.
Believing that one bad run does not make a bad horse, racing fans went to town again on Saturday. After all, it was in a lower-grade race.
The only horse that stood in his way was the speedy Tim Fitzsimmons-trained and Manoel Nunes-ridden debut runner-up Gold Cut.
It was not surprising that Gold Cut opened as the favourite. But what was a shock was that South Of The River overtook him for favouritism in the final minute – at the unbelievable $7 for a win.
Well, as they say, there is no smoke without fire. Word from the grapevine must be that the horse was the next thing to a certainty.
This time, his legion of supporters were rewarded. He truly ran like a hot favourite should do. He not only beat his eight rivals, but he also annihilated and embarrassed them.
He took Panama-born Singaporean jockey Oscar Chavez on a Jumbo Jet ride. He flew the runway and he was on a solo flight home.
Gold Cut was scrubbed hard by Nunes, but could not keep up with the scorching pace. He was lucky to hold on for second, a nose in front of outsider Fabu.
South Of The River clocked 58.46sec, a class record. He bettered My Everest’s 58.68sec mark set on March 6, 2020.
His time was also only 0.76sec outside the course record held by all-weather champion Nova Swiss.
Clements was at a loss why South Of The River fluffed his lines on his debut. But he did hazard three guesses to account for Saturday’s radical improvement.
“I think there is a combination of three reasons to today’s win,” said the 2020 Singapore champion trainer.
“He benefited from that first run. I think he also enjoyed the Polytrack and the blinkers helped.
“He’s very green and has a nervous disposition. Normally blinkers are meant to wake horses up, but they help him settle and concentrate better. He was also a lot more focused.
“He showed so much that we felt he would win first-up. We prepared him for that run and we were reasonably confident he would go well.
“But he was pretty plain on the turf. There was absolutely no problem from that first run. But he just seems to act so much better on Polytrack, and I also think he took out a lot of that first run in terms of fitness and experience.
“We carried on with his preparation and today, he was excellent. We saw what we expected first-up.”
South Of The River’s owner, Greenwood Stable, is a new outfit. Clements was delighted its first purchase could be so promising.
“I think there are some owners who had shares in horses around here, but not with me. They are new owners to me and they bought that horse from a Victoria barrier trial via some friend of theirs,” said Clements.
“They did put that trial past me for my go-ahead. I did tell them from the way he trialled, he had quite a lot of speed and should be a horse that would suit Singapore.”
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