Stop The Water proves too nippy for his rivals

If there was a prize for the most impressive winner at the trials on July 11, Stop The Water would carry it home.

You see, on a splendid morning at the Kranji racecourse, the Steven Burridge-trained runner was in such flowing form that his rider, apprentice jockey Sazali Ramli, could have done the crosswords in the saddle and his mount would still have won.

At the end of it all, Stop The Water put 7½ lengths between himself and Tony’s Love (Bernardo Pinheiro), who had to be content just to watch the winner fade into the morning light.

Yes, on the day no one could, well, Stop The Water.

He was just too nippy. Just too smart and just too eager to get the job done.

Jumping from the innermost gate in that six-horse line-up, the frisky three-year-old anticipated the start and was quickly into stride.

Navy Seals, the mount of Ruan Maia, and Rambo (Mohd Zaki) were caught unawares and they could do nothing but accept the fact that they had to take the dirt that was being kicked back by the leader.

Into the home stretch and Stop The Water was still gushing.

He was 10 lengths clear and travelling nicely on the bit.

Sazali would have known he was onto a good thing and he also knew that his only job was to keep his mount going in a straight line.

Thathe did and Stop The Water went to the line full of running.

Indeed, had he not been pulled up, he could have gone another lap without raising a sweat.

Stop The Water eventually clocked 1min 00.35sec for the flying 1,000m – and he did it without being pushed, prodded or pressured.

Yes, Fairdeal & Ronald Lau Stable have a good one in their ranks.

The son of Headwater has already won twice from nine outings and there could be more coming up.

At his last outing on June 16, Stop The Water carried stable confidence and was sent off as the $16 second pick in that sprint over the 1,200m.

Alas, on the day, he had the misfortune of coming up against a really good one in Ravalli.

And, as the dice fell, he was run down over the concluding stages and had to be content with second spot.

Since then, Ravalli has become the talk of the town but Stop The Water is still something special and, when Burridge sends him to the races again, it may be a good idea to ride with him.

Earlier in the morning, in the second of four trials, the very exciting Lim's Saltoro was given an easy time by jockey Marc Lerner and no red flags were waved when he finished last in that hit-out which was won by King Of Sixty-One (Bruno Queiroz).

It was like he was out for a morning stroll – which was probably what trainer Daniel Meagher had intended all along.

Jumping from the outermost chute, Lim’s Saltoro was nicely into stride. But Lerner was not going for glory.

Indeed, he snagged his mount to a spot near the rear and, from then on, it was just a matter of the Shamexpress four-year-old completinghis stretch-out and returning to the stable without any problems.

A winner of eight races from nine starts, his only blemish – if you could call it that – was finishing second behind stablemate and superstar Lim’s Kosciuszko in the Group 2 EW Barker Trophy race over 1,400m on April 21. This time, Lim’s Saltoro could be sent off as favourite in the Singapore Derby.

The $400,000 Group 1 feature over 1,800m, which was won by the Tim Fitzsimmons-trained Golden Monkey in 2023, will be run on July 21.

Back to that second trial and it was a shoot-out between Fitzsimmons and Meagher.

Each had three runners in the contest and Fitzsimmons came up tops, when he filled the trifecta with King Of Sixty-One beating Raising Sixty-One (Ryan Curatolo) and Saint Tropez (Simon Kok) grabbing third spot.

The “King”, who had wrested the lead from Always Together at the 600m, had to survive a determined charge by his stablemate, who loomed dangerously at the furlong mark.

However, the momentum was with King Of Sixty-One, who went on to beat Raising Sixty-One by a neck. Saint Tropez was some 1¼ lengths further adrift.

King Of Sixty-One has been a good one to have in the yard.

Indeed, the last time we saw the five-year-old Irish-bred by Gutaifan in action was on June 22 – and it was a trulyimpressive show.

Partnered by Curatolo, King Of Sixty-One romped in by five lengths in that 1,600m race for Class 3 runners.

It was his fourth victory from 16 starts and there are definitely more wins in the offing.

brian@sph.com.sg