Friday, July 25, 2008
Former New Zealand galloper Tobias broke through for his maiden victory when he took out the $65,000 Initiation Stakes over 1600m on Friday night.
Heavily supported late in betting, Tobias, ridden by Ronnie Stewart, had to pull out all stops to score a neck victory over Strike On (Noel Callow) with Fairy Story (Oscar Chavez) the same margin back in third place.
Trainer Stephen Burridge said Tobias had done a good job to break through at his fourth start in Singapore.
Jockey Noel Callow (in yellow) aboard Strike On takes a peek to his right and realises Ronnie Stewart and Tobias got there before him.
“It was a pretty good win,” said Burridge. “He was three wide most of the way but toughed it out well.
“I think he can stay. He’s a nice type and with further racing I think he’ll be able to go on with. He had something like 11 convictions in New Zealand before coming here, but he’s finally broken through.
“I’ll just pick and choose a few races with him. He’ll stick to his right grade, but he can stick on a bit and hopefully he’ll win better races.”
The pace was set by Monday Nite (Saimee Jumaat) who led from Fairy Story who was out three wide. Strike On settled in third place before pushing forward to be on the fence turning for home.
Despite being three deep, Stewart was happy to have Tobias out and rolling. The gelding had improved to be in fourth place as the field came to the turn under a tight hold.
Early in the straight Tobias loomed up to hit the lead and looked all set for a comfortable win, but Callow aboard Strike On was hard at work extracting the best from the Laurie Laxon trained galloper.
Approaching the 200m mark, Stewart had to get busy on the gelding and at the finish the gelding just prevailed, despite racing three deep.
“That was my plan,” quipped Stewart to which Burridge replied: “Yeah, but I was pulling my hair out at the 1200m mark.”
Stewart said he was confident of success throughout the 1600m assignment.
“On his last run he was the one to beat and I had no doubts the 1600m would suit him,” said Stewart.
“The biggest concern I had was how the race was going to be run. I was concerned they might not go hard enough.
“Early on I was happy to be three wide with cover, but I could see the field was starting to break up and I knew Strike On would get in.
“Even though we didn’t have any cover, I had plenty of horse underneath me, but I must admit in the final stages I was really looking for the winning post.”
Tobias had secured $5675 in his 11 starts in New Zealand prior to heading to Singapore where Friday night’s victory took his prizemoney to around the $45,000 mark.
Tobias is a four-year-old son of Germano from the Crested Wave mare Vienna Belle and is raced by the Tobias Stable.