News

Castor Claims The Inglis Sydney Better Life Stakes

10th May 2014

The David Kok trained Castor threw himself into the mix for next week’s Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe in Singapore with an impressive display at Kranji last night in the Inglis Sydney Better Life Stakes.

Castor (Greenwood Lake x Genes) never gave his rivals a look in over the flying 1000m on the polytrack on Friday evening as he bounded straight to the front from barrier three and sped along in a slick 59.39 seconds. I’m Kool (by Freeze) tried hard for second while Wonderful Era (by Nothern Meteor) and Satellite Prince (by Flying Spur) made good ground from the back of the field for third and fourth respectively.

With race experience on his side Castor was much more professional this time out and David Kok is very keen to chase the great money on offer on next week’s feature two-year-old event, the Golden Horseshoe.

“It was a bit of a rushed preparation to get him to tonight’s race, but no choice, we had to give him a run. At least, I knew the experience of the first race would help him. On tonight’s run and his good time, I’ll definitely back him up for the last Leg next Friday, though the grass is a question mark,” said Kok.

The Inglis Sydney Better Life Stakes was the fifth and penultimate leg of the rich Singapore Golden Horseshoe Series which culminates with the $325,000 Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe over 1200m on Turf on Friday 16 May.

All the winners of the five lead up legs are set to compete in next week’s event which will carry a bonus of S$195,000. If the winning horse is Australian sired and was offered for public sale as a yearling by Inglis or Magic Millions they will win the jackpot bonus. Should a non-qualified horse win the Aushorse Golden Horseshoe Race, the remaining bonus monies, taking in any previous bonus monies not having been paid-out, will be paid to the connections of the qualified horse that won the greatest amount of prizemoney during the series.

Last night’s event was named in honour of Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale graduate Better Life (Smarty Jones x Quiet Life), which was Singapore’s Champion Four-Year-Old and Stayer for 2013 having claimed last year’s Singapore Derby. The Aus-bred filly retired back to Australia last spring to be covered by Widden Stud stallion Sebring.

The two-year-olds that have won the first five legs of the 2014 Singapore Golden Horseshoe Series are:
Barnato - Magic Millions Cash Luck Stakes (1000m) on Sunday 23 March
Kiwi Karma - IRT Juvenile Stakes (1100m) on Friday 4 April
Affleck - Inglis Melbourne Stepitup Stakes (1200m) on Sunday 20 April
Kiwi Karma - Magic Millions National Yearling Stakes (1200m) on Friday 2 May
Castor - Inglis Sydney Better Life Stakes (1000m) on Friday 9 May

Next Friday's Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe promises to be a fantastic race with all the above winners and many placegetters during the series set to line up.