Lightly-raced former New Zealand gelding Russian Safari has trainer Steven Burridge thinking of grander plans after his victory in the $65,000 Novice Stakes over 1600 metres on Friday night.

Having just his third Singapore start after winning on debut in New Zealand, Russian Safari scored a strong length victory under Danny Beasley over the hot favourite Dylan (Saimee Jumaat) with Risky Business (Matt Kellady) a neck away third.

Burridge has a good opinion of Russian Safari but said the gelding was still “quite green”.“He got lost at his first race start for me and then struck plenty of trouble last time,” he said. “He jumped a shadow or something, struck the rail and nearly fell over.


Russian Safari (Danny Beasley), in blue, hits the front 150m from home to defeat
Dylan (Saimee Jumaat), on rails and Risky Business (Matthew Kellady).

“He’s just been a slow maturing horse but I think he’s quite promising. Once he learns what racing is all about I think we’ll be able to really have some fun.”

Russian Safari put the writing on the wall with a good second to the promising The Hornet over 1600 metres on April 20 after doing things wrong at his previous outing when fourth to Inzaghi on April 6.

Dylan led the field up in what looked a slow tempo, but the 1600 metre trip was carved out in a brisk 1.35.0 which points to the form from the race being quite strong as they streeted their rivals.

Beasley said Russian Safari should develop into “a nice horse” as he got a bit lost coming to the home turn.

“He seemed to get a bit lost near the 600 metres so I had to get up him a bit,” Beasley said. “He responded well without me having to go full bore at him.

“Once he got up level with Dylan, he really knuckled down well. He has the makings of being a smart horse.”

Beasley said he was forced to go forward and race on the outside of Dylan as he didn’t want Saimee to get away with an easy lead.

“Once you let Saimee get away with things all his own way, he’s too hard to run down,” Beasley said. “I decided it best to go up outside him. It worked out in our favour.”