There is a rare sense of hope among Singaporean fans that they can finally win an international race after nine empty years since Ouzo won the inaugural SIA Cup in 2000. And jockey Robbie Fradd can't help but fuel their optimism. Fradd is the jockey of unbeaten star Rocket Man, who last start ascended to Group One company with an effortless win in Singapore's top domestic sprint, the Lion City Cup (1,200m)."Make no mistake, he's the real deal," Fradd said yesterday. "I knew very e
There is a rare sense of hope among Singaporean fans that they can finally win an international race after nine empty years since Ouzo won the inaugural SIA Cup in 2000. And jockey Robbie Fradd can't help but fuel their optimism. Fradd is the jockey of unbeaten star Rocket Man, who last start ascended to Group One company with an effortless win in Singapore's top domestic sprint, the Lion City Cup (1,200m).
"Make no mistake, he's the real deal," Fradd said yesterday. "I knew very early on that he was something special. He's been winning everything on the bridle and he's still got another gear left." After Rocket Man had won only his third start, the experienced South African did something which, for him, was unheard of. He dared to compare this young restricted class sprinter with the great Fairy King Prawn. Now, normally, when a jockey draws extreme comparisons between a nice young horse with one of the greats of yesteryear, you can quietly chuckle into the back of your hand because they almost always turn out wrong and an insult to the great horse in question.
But this is different for two reasons. Firstly, Fradd is an arch-conservative and has the highest respect for Fairy King Prawn - the only other horse to get credited with being on the same plateau was Electronic Unicorn, the other great miler of Hong Kong racing. Secondly, Rocket Man has won four more since he made that statement and no horse has given him anything remotely resembling a proper contest.
Fairy King Prawn is still one of the benchmark horses of Hong Kong racing, having won the Hong Kong Sprint in 1999 before travelling abroad to win the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo in 2000. "I hate making comparisons and previously, I never have," Fradd said. "But the feel Rocket Man gives me is amazing. I don't particularly want to lead on him but he has such enormous natural speed, he ends up leading by default." However, Fradd will be happy to hand up the lead in Sunday's HK$5.29 million KrisFlyer Sprint and believes South African sprinter Mythical Flight will be simply too fast in the early stages.
"Mythical Flight has brilliant speed - he'll be too fast early for Takeover Target so I see him leading, Takeover Target taking a sit behind them and I should come across and race at the quarters of Mythical Flight."(www.racing.scmp.com)