From Michael Lee & Craig Brennan in SingaporeThe Cox Plate is now a target for brilliant mare Jolie's Shinju who has for the third time given all the right answers with an authority and defiance probably never seen at Kranji each time the bar was raised at her, to carve up her male rivals to an even more mind-numbing victory in the Group 1 $1 million Emirates Singapore Derby on Sunday. The Jolie's Halo four-year-old had already claimed the first two Legs of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Chall
From Michael Lee & Craig Brennan in Singapore
The Cox Plate is now a target for brilliant mare Jolie's Shinju who has for the third time given all the right answers with an authority and defiance probably never seen at Kranji each time the bar was raised at her, to carve up her male rivals to an even more mind-numbing victory in the Group 1 $1 million Emirates Singapore Derby on Sunday.
The Jolie's Halo four-year-old had already claimed the first two Legs of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge, the Patrons' Bowl (1400m) and the Singapore Derby Trial (1600m), and becomes the first horse since Bocelli to make a cleansweep of the three Legs with the Derby triumph, pocketing at the same time a total bonus of $150,000, having already collected $50,000 for winning the first two legs.
Prepared by Japanese trainer Hideyuki Takaoka, Jolie's Shinju, who was originally raced as a pure-speed sprinter, has proven this campaign to be a model of sheer power and unrelenting pace in all her wins, but somehow the jury had thus far been out whether she would be up to the task every time the trip was extended further.
She silenced the critics in the Derby Trial with a resounding five-length victory, bulging her fan base a bit further, and she certainly rounded up all the few remaining skeptics on Sunday after she literally exploded down the Kranji straight to another five-length victory turning the contest into another emphatic one-horse race.
Gobsmacked by this unbridled galloping display at the expense of so-called more seasoned stayers like Jabal Tarik, Win In, The Hornet, the capacity crowd at Kranji didn't wait long before they cheered for quite possibly the new Kranji superstar, in the wake of momentarily losing No 1 star Rocket Man to injury.
Jolie's Shinju with Ronnie Stewart aboard ran the 2000m in 2min 0.2secs and has become the 14th winner of the Derby sponsored by the Emirates and the first mare to win the Derby since Showgirl V in 1973, and from a future perspective, has all but booked her ticket to the Group 1 Tattersalls Cox Plate (2040m) in Melbourne in October.
"I hope she can now go for the Cox Plate," said her emotional owner, prominent liver surgeon Dr Tan Kai Chah after the race. "She ran a very good time, which was not all that far from the SIA Cup time (1min 59.2secs). I think she can measure up in Australia. Today, I was always confident she could see out a strong 2000m, especially after she ran the first 800m in 48.73 for a 2000m race. Things got off to a great start when she was able to get a clean jump and Ronnie who knows her well, was able to steady up the pace. I told Ronnie not to get a rush of blood and let the horse travel within her own steam. I also told him not to raise his hand before the winning post. He was good - he did it after the winning post!"