Star Australian three-year-old North Boy
has smashed the track record in winning the S$1 million Krisflyer Sprint at Kranji
racecourse in Singapore tonight.
Ridden by Greg Childs, the son of Rory's
Jester made up for the disappointment of his narrow defeat in the Group One Newmarket
Handicap at Flemington in March.
Ironically, North Boy's trainer Tony McEvoy
cracked it for his first international victory in the first race he's ever had a runner
against "The Boss" David Hayes. Of course, David, who trained the unplaced
performer Charming City, is the principal of Lindsay
Park, the training establishment run by McEvoy in Australia.
North Boy made the rich sprint a one act
affair winning by three and a half lengths in the track record time of 1-09 for the 1200
metre journey.
Not surprisingly winning trainer Tony
McEvoy was overjoyed at the feature race win.
"This is a huge thrill for me,"
an excited McEvoy said.
"It was a bit of a gamble coming here,
but we had a high opinion of him back home, but to come and perform beating such a high
class field was fantastic."
"He jumped well and was in a good
spot, the pressure was on but he rose to the challenge and it was also a great performance
to beat the course record," McEvoy said.
McEvoy attributed much of the success to
the high class facilities in Singapore.
"The facilities here have been great
and we have had everything we needed in the run up to the race," the winning trainer
added.
North Boy is owned by a group of long term
Lindsay Park clients including managing owner Peter Devitt who was delighted with the win.
"We're very thrilled," Devitt
enthused moments after the win. "The horse had been racing fairly well in Australia
and we thought he was worthy of a chance in Singapore."
When asked when he thought his gelding
would win during the race the excited owner quipped, "after they jumped!"
Winning jockey Greg Childs said a major key
to the victory was the good run the pair received during the early and middle stages.
"We got a nice soft trip in the middle
stages, they fanned out and then he just proved too good," Childs said.
"He's a good horse, he's trained by a
good trainer and he won very convincingly," Childs added.
The connections of North Boy have pocketed
in excess of S$600,000 for the win, and the gelding's prizemoney total rocketed over the
$1 million mark.
The record breaking win of North Boy came
just five days after his top producing dam North Bell was sold in foal to Flying Spur for
$550,000 at the Australian Broodmare Sale in Sydney on Monday.
North Boy is of course a half brother to
the champion Australian galloper Northerly - a winner of the Cox Plate and Australian Cup,
just to name two.
The other Australian entrant in the field,
the Russell Cameron trained Toledo, raced a touch worse than midfield and wound up just
behind the placegetters.
Caller One, the warm favourite and American
champion, raced close to the leaders but was "gone" a long way out. At the post
he had allowed every other runner to pass him and he finished a long last. |
