Trainer Steven Burridge celebrated a double on Sunday when Show The Flag and King And King top and tailed the meeting.

In the first event on the card the $35,000 Class 5 over 1800m, Matt Pumpa drove Show The Flag home despite suffering a hand injury prior to the start when he fell from the horse on the way to the barrier.

Show The Flag and Matt Pumpa


Pumpa hopped back on board at the gate and with the horse being quickly gathered in he was cleared fit to start.

The four-year-old son of Mellifont proceeded to dominate procedures over the final stages when he clearly appreciated a firmer track.

At the healthy price of $292 he went on to win by just under four lengths from Kingsley (Barend Vorster) with Hurricane Borneo (K Sara) a further length away third.

Pumpa was stood down after the race and headed to hospital for precautionary x-rays on his injured hand.

King And King and Ryan Plumb

Burridge then had to wait for the end of the meeting for his double but it was all the sweeter with the return to winning form of stable stalwart King And King.

King And King had been tantalisingly close on a number of occasions, but hadn’t quite got back into the winner’s circle since his dominating performance in the Group 2 Queen Elizabeth Cup back in March 2006.

Since that win, King And King has provided his owners the Jumbo Stable with five seconds, three of the at Group level, but two ordinary runs in the 2007 Queen Elizabeth Cup and the 2007 Singapore Airlines International Cup, ensured that punters sent him out at a lukewarm $38 in Sunday’s race.

At the jump the only horse behind King And King was Stealth who reared as the gates opened and missed the start by several lengths.

Raul (Farick Tan) and King’s Carnival (Robbie Fradd) went to the lead easily but once Farick Tan crossed and got the rails position he kicked along setting a pretty fast pace for an 1800m race.

Out the back and apprentice Ryan Plumb was biding his time with King And King three off the fence but with cover as the field headed down past the 600m.

As they straightened for home Plumb had King And King the widest horse in the straight and after 21 races on the turf that weekend, he was clearly in the best going.

He pulled the stick at the 400m and while Barend Vorster had sprinted to the lead quickly on War Horn it was always going to be King And King’s day once he started to lengthen stride.

He hit the lead at the 200m and skipped home for an impressive two length win over Lemurian with Wind Chaser a further two and a quarter lengths away third.

Copyright 2006 Singapore Turf Club