News

Laxon claims fifth Chairman's Trophy with Stepitup

27th Jul 2015

Singapore Turf Club - Michael Lee - Sunday, 26 July 2015

The hard-working Stepitup claimed his second Group win within a fortnight when he took out Sunday’s $300,000 Group 2 Chairman’s Trophy in his customary tradesman fashion to hand trainer Laurie Laxon his fifth success in that feature race over 1800m.

After first etching his name on the honour roll in 2002 with Hoeberg, the nine-time Singapore champion trainer went on to add three more with Mount Street (2006), Top Spin (2008) and Goodman (2014).

Two weeks ago, Stepitup captured the Group 3 Yew Tee Classic Stakes (1800m) giving away weight all round, but faced an easier task with the Chairman’s Trophy being at weight-for-age level.

Still, winning jockey Manoel Nunes had some reservations about the time between runs being a little too close for comfort, but an inspiring ride from the Singapore champion jockey saw the little warrior with the big heart home again.

“He just had that win two weeks ago and I was a bit worried this race came up too close. I wanted to be a little close, but he’s a horse who doesn’t like to be used up too early and in the end we settled near the back,” said the Brazilian jockey.

“I thought of going around the field at one stage but decided to ride him for luck instead as I didn’t want him to go too wide and he might have to make too much ground.

“Credit to Laurie and the boys for preparing him to be on top of his game after two weeks. He was flying and I tried to give him the best possible run.”

After jumping fairly from his barrier No 2, the Hussonet five-year-old was settled worse than midfield on the rails before Nunes decided to take closer order from the backstretch.

With the tempo being only moderate, the on-pacers were still full of running at the top of the straight with Stepitup’s stablemate Ideal Guide (Timothy Bell) showing plenty of cheek as he tried to steal the race at the 300m.

Stepitup was at that moment caught behind a wall of runners and trying desperately to thread his way through. A gap then appeared but it was vied for by One Rar (Matthew Kellady) at the same time, causing a bit of a bumping duel, but once Stepitup got on an even keel and started to stretch away, there was no more doubting who would claim top prize.

Sticking his neck out in his trademark dogged fashion, Stepitup kept hitting the line strongly to score with one quarter length to spare from Wild Geese (Alan Munro) who held One Rar in third spot by the same margin. The winning time was 1min 49.07secs for the 1800m on the Long Course.

“This is my fifth Chairman’s Trophy and it’s an achievement I take a lot of pride in,” said Laxon.

“He’s a lovely horse, only small but all heart and an amazing will to win. Even if the weights and measures favoured him, we can never be too overconfident with horses like Flax in the race.

“He will have a bit of a break now and I will bring him back for the Kranji Mile and Raffles Cup later in the year.”

Stepitup has now brought up an outstanding record of 12 wins and eight placings from 29 starts for prizemoney in excess of $1.9 million for the Tivic Stable of Mr Thomas Loke.

Steptitup (Hussonet x Ain't Seen Nothin') was a $90,000 purchase from the draft of Bellerive Stud at the 2011 Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.