Gareth Pepper and Matthew Jones give us the inside edge on the track work in the build up to Sunday’s big day in Singapore.
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South African racing fans have fond memories of the Singapore Airlines International Cup (SIA Cup) with the victories of Jay Peg (2008) and Lizard’s Desire (2010) our highlights.
With a purse of S$3 million (currently US$ 2 370 000) up for grabs, the race, unsurprisingly, attracted some of the best horses from the four corners of the globe at its inaugural running.
In a finish that will go down on record as one of the most remarkable milestones in Singapore’s horse racing history, the first edition went to a locally-trained, Ouzo. The New Zealand-bred by Oregon did Singapore proud by producing an astounding turn of foot to deny Jim And Tonic victory by a neck.
To this day, Ouzo remains the only locally-trained horse to have captured the SIA Cup. In the subsequent 12 editions (the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak forced the cancellation of the 2003 edition) winners hailing from the four corners of the globe have flashed past the Kranji winning post as the race has kept growing in stature.
There have been 13 individual winners from nine different countries (Singapore, England, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Australia, Japan, South Africa, France and Hong Kong) adding their names to the honour roll. Among them, Grandera (2002) and Epalo (2004) are the only two SIA Cup winners to have gone on to win the World Champion title under the now defunct World Series Racing Championship series.
Speed
The other feature, the $1 million KrisFlyer International Sprint will provide plenty of thrills again.
In 2001, the race, previously known as the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Sprint, was launched as the sprint “spin-off” of the Singapore Airlines International Cup for three-year-olds and upwards. The 1200m race did not fail to provide racing enthusiasts with thrilling results in the two editions staged.
The race obtained further recognition when it became part of the Global Sprint Challenge in 2011, which was also the year when local superstar Rocket Man became the first locally-trained sprinter to capture the event.
Hong Kong’s sprinting wonder Lucky Nine made history by becoming the first horse to add his name to the KrisFlyer twice, scoring back-to-back wins in 2013 and 2014.
