By Michael Lee, Singapore Turf Club
Steven Burridge was not exactly looking forward to the long road home, until his last runner Absolvido came to his rescue in the penultimate race on Saturday.
The Australian trainer had no joy with his previous seven runners, with Lim’s Dreamwalker’s second in the second race his best result.
But Absolvido ($65), a horse he probably did not consider as his best chance of the day, but who he always knew was without ability and just needed luck in the running, turned his drab day on its head thanks to a withering finishing burst in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1200m.
At the 300m mark, favourite Water Rocket (Marc Lerner) was getting plenty of cheers from his backers when he shook off his biggest threat Boomba (Azhar Ismail) while Miracle (Ruan Maia) seemed one-paced.
Absolvido was also in hot pursuit after he snuck up right behind the fighting trio but his acceleration didn’t have that lethal element to it.
On the other hand, War Frontier (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) and Rambo (Tengku Rehaizat) were finishing like mail trains, but just when we thought one of them would steal the race, Absolvido suddenly sprouted wings inside the last 50m on the nearside of War Frontier to stick his neck in front right on the line.
Despite his late flourish, Rambo got there a fraction too late, having to settle for second place with Water Rocket hanging on for third place another short head away.
As for War Frontier, he had every chance but could not quite finish it off to run fourth another half-a-length away. Absolvido clocked 1min 10.02secs for the 1200m on the Long Course on turf.
“I had a bad day all day, one horse (Lim’s Dreamwalker) ran second and some were caught four wide,” said Burridge.
“I’ll be honest. This horse (Absolvido) always runs good but he always gets back to last and makes things tougher for himself, he needs a good pace.
“Today, I told Simon to ride the fence and ride him for luck. That’s how he runs and even won last time (February 9) with JP (John Powell).
“Unfortunately you can’t ride him different. When the run is right, he will be around the mark.
“He’s an honest horse, but he has not been an easy horse to ride or train. This is a horse Wade (son) bought and it’s good to see him win again.”
Racing under Burridge’s name, the Rip Van Winkle seven-year-old has rounded up a record of five wins and nine placings from 30 starts for close to $185,000 in prizemoney
