By Michael Lee, Singapore Turf Club
Preditor’s half-brother Red Ocean opened his Kranji account for trainer Shane Baertschiger with a resolute win in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1400m on Sunday.
Out of Bird, the same dam as Baertschiger’s Group 3 Jumbo Jet Trophy winner, Red Ocean had shown significant progress at the last of his three starts (in a similar RM1400) when a close fourth to Prodigal despite tracking out wide throughout.
From the handier barrier in three, the Ocean Park three-year-old piloted the field from the get-go to emerge the winner out of a bit of a bumping duel with the only challenger Con Speranza (Marc Lerner) inside the last 200m.
Ironprince ran his customary honest race with a third place another two-and-a-half lengths away, but the Steven Burridge-Simon Kok Wei Hoong combination would in the next race get redemption when they went two better with $244 longshot Split Second storming home to beat Gold City (Vlad Duric) by a short head in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1800m.
The Bullet Train three-year-old, who recorded his previous two wins on rain-affected tracks, showed he could also come up trumps with less juice in the ground. He ran the 1800m on the Long Course in 1min 49.45secs.
On the other hand, Red Ocean garnered a lot more support at $35, and clocked 1min 23.09secs for the 1400m on the Long Course. Racing in Baertschiger’s Group 1-winning colours of Aramco Stable (Aramco – Lion City Cup – and Aramaayo – Kranji Mile and Raffles Cup), Red Ocean has banked in around $45,000, the bulk of which comes from his first win paycheque.
Being by a Cox Plate winner and out of a Danasinga (Stradbroke Handicap winner) mare, Red Ocean should on paper thrive even more as he heads towards longer journeys.
“He’ll get 2000m. He’s a half-brother to Preditor,” said Baertschiger.
“The owners bought him (for NZ$190,000) as a yearling. He won a very nice race today.
“He was three wide at his last start and he kicked on well for fourth. Danny was confident with the better draw today he should be in the first three.
“He made use of the good barrier to keep the second horse (Con Speranza) off. That horse bumped us three times when he laid in, we would probably have won on protest, anyway.”
With a record of five wins and seven placings from 45 starts, Preditor might not one of the most prolific runners for Baertschiger, but he has nonetheless been a stalwart for the Australian handler on the big stage. He is probably better remembered when he came with a withering last-to-first run under Hong Kong apprentice jockey Matthew Poon to claim the scalp of none other than champion galloper Debt Collector in the shadows of the post of the Group 3 Jumbo Jet Trophy (1400m) in 2018.
