Antipodean under Challenge
Selangor Gold Cup winner returns to face Sports Toto Supreme A race test
KUALA LUMPUR - The RM100,000 (S$30,400) Sports Toto Supreme Challenge Cup on Oct 13 appears to be the most exciting in the series since it was first run as Sports Toto Trophy in 2004.
The line-up for the Supreme A 1,400m set-weight event this year resembles a contest for one of the traditional big races staged by one of the turf clubs.
It has attracted the cream of the sprinters and middle-distance horses in the country headed by topweight Awesome Storm.
The 12-time winner by Phenomenons bounced back to form last start to win a Metro A event over 1,200m on Sept 21 after failing to lead all the way in the Selangor Gold Cup (1,600m) earlier that month.
At his latest win, Awesome Storm beat Gamestonks, who has 10 wins to his name and is rated 114, just three points below Awesome Storm.
Two-time Singapore champion apprentice jockey Jerlyn Seow, who rode the champion sprinter in the Selangor Gold Cup, will be back in the saddle.
Gamestonks inflicted Antipodean with his only defeat thus far in a Supreme A race over 1,300m in August, but skipped the Selangor Gold Cup as the “mile” trip is probably beyond him.
Antipodean, who like Awesome Storm, is prepared by Simon Dunderdale, then made amends in the Selangor Gold Cup to bring his record to eight wins in nine starts.
The Derryn four-year-old gets into the Sports Toto Supreme Challenge Cup with 57kg, compared with Awesome Storm’s 60kg.
Wong Chin Chuen, who just rode a treble at Singapore’s final meeting on Oct 5, and nearly won the last running of the Group 1 Grand Singapore Gold Cup (beaten a neck on Lim’s Saltoro) at Kranji, will ride Antipodean for the first time.
Beaten just a head in the Selangor Gold Cup, Golden Pegasus gets a rematch with Antipodean. The pair had swept the three and four-year-old series earlier in the year and met for the first time last start.
Golden Pegasus just lost out in a neck-and-neck duel by a head. Ruzaini Supien will partner the Star Turn six-time winner again.
Good Fight won this race in 2023 and went on to complete a Cup hat-trick with successes in the Coronation Cup (1,600m) and Charity Cup (1,400m), but he has struggled to find his winning form this season.
However, the Super One gelding showed that he was not far from his best with a third placing in the Selangor Gold Cup, then ran third again to Berry Bliss over 1,700m on Sept 22.
Two other past winners, Shanghai Nights (2020) and Violet (2021), are also in the line-up but they are currently a pale shadow of their former selves.
Berry Bliss, sixth in the Selangor Gold Cup, and Streets Of Fire (fifth), Cheval Blanc (seventh) and Trigger Pegasus (10th) will also line up.
Berry Bliss upset Golden Pegasus to notch his 11th win in his first run after the Gold Cup. Interestingly, Clyde Leck, the regular rider of both Berry Bliss and Gamestonks, will be riding the former.
Streets Of Fire (eight wins) finished second in this race in 2023 and his best effort since was his second to Circuit Mission in the Penang Sprint Trophy (1,400m) last July.
A two-time winner in Singapore, Cheval Blanc is much-improved since joining Frank Maynard, winning four times including the Penang Gold Cup (2,000m) last December and the Tunku Gold Cup (1,200m) in April for trainer Wayne Lim.
Trigger Pegasus, who scored five wins as Trident for Donna Logan at Kranji, moved to trainer Nick Selvan this year and won the Charity Cup (1,400m) in his second start on Aug 25.
If the Macau Derby winner Mega Gems, the first emergency acceptor, gets a run, an improved performance could be expected from him.
The Zoustar gelding ran a creditable race in his Malaysian debut when fourth behind Awesome Storm in that Metro A race on Sept 21. He was right in the mix all the way but just could not find that something extra in the final 200m.
No doubt the four-time Macau winner would have benefited from his first run in months and would appreciate the longer trip this time. SLTC
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