Super Salute back in business

One year ago, Super Salute fired up the new and final Singapore season in 2024 with a brilliant win in the Group 3 New Year Cup (1,200m).

While racing was already doomed in the Lion City, the gelding’s ninth win helped set aside the gloom, at least, for a short while.

Former jockey Richard Lim – Super Salute’s second trainer after his more successful first handler Jason Lim (saddled him to his other seven wins, including a Group 2 and another Group 3) was disqualified for 18 months in July 2023 – was picking up his first silverware in his young training career.

Owner Alan John could afford to dream big with the dozen feature races left to snare in the last 10 months before it was curtains.

Sure his arch-rival Golden Monkey and arch-nemesis Lim’s Kosciuszko would be formidable foes, but the son of I Am Invincible could hold his own, especially with five-time Singapore champion jockey Manoel Nunes on his back.

Unfortunately, it all went pear-shaped from there.

Three defeats, all at Group level, ensued. The latest, a drubbing from Lim’s Kosciuszko in the Group 1 Kranji Mile on May 18 was to be his last Singapore bow.

Eight months on, Super Salute will pop back up in a RM62,000 (S$18,800) Supreme A (1,200m) in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 12 under a new trainer, Parama Sivan Veerapen, but still in John’s blue silks.

The fourth-year trainer is under no illusions his new charge may not usher in the New Year to the same fireworks this time.

But one thing the former popular lightweight jockey refuses to not do is look a gift horse in the mouth.

Convinced the six-year-old could not have lost his form for no rhyme or reason, Sivan, 60, was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Five months after taking him under his wings, he is none the wiser, but he has made some inroads. Sunday’s run will tell more.

“Super Salute came to me in August together with Supermax. The owner Alan and I were childhood friends,” said Sivan.

“I was very happy when Supermax won his first race for me at his third start on Dec 22 as he was quite run down when he arrived.

“Likewise with Super Salute, to be honest, till today, I don’t have a clear picture of his condition.

“He was in and out of many yards. As Richard didn’t train him long, I called Jason for some info.

“It’s only when I started working him that I saw he had a lot of injuries. It was actually Steven Burridge who had him last (but never got a chance to race him) who guided me on what to do.

“I’ve done a lot of IA (intra-articular injections) on him, and other treatments. He’s had issues here and there, even with his tendon, but the main one is the backbone.”

Sivan, who still cuts a slim figure at 51kg and rides trackwork at his Sungai Besi base, waited until he himself felt the engine under him was ready before relaunching him.

“Step by step, I brought him back, he started galloping in the last six weeks. I rode him myself and so far, so good,” he said.

“He’s got the racing fitness, but not the winning fitness. I’d be very happy if he can finish midfield, fourth or fifth, not too far off.”

Besides Super Salute, who carries the 59kg topweight and will be ridden by Saifudin Ismail, Sivan also saddles another ex-Kranji runner – and by coincidence, another I Am Invincible – in King Arthur.

The former Donna Logan-trained nine-time winner (two wins under Mark Walker), however, has the advantage of having already had one run under the belt in Malaysia, an unplaced effort in a Metro A race (1,200m) on Dec 1.

“King Arthur has a lot of issues with his hoof, and he’s a very temperamental horse. It’s very difficult to train him and take him to the races,” he said.

“But age (seven) is catching up and he’s all right now. He’s had one run which helped him.

“He should run a better race than Super Salute and I expect him to progress in the next three months.”

Sivan has not mapped out any big plans for either Super Salute or King Arthur, but is clearly looking forward to the new season ahead.

“I’ve done okay so far, but competition is getting tougher with the new blood from Singapore horses,” he said. “You’ll see a change in the competition by March.

“To meet the challenge, I got rid of my older horses, mainly Class 5 eight-year-olds, 12 horses all up.

“I now have around 25 horses, but I also just bought four unraced horses, two from Inglis and two from Karaka in New Zealand. I’ve got to keep up with the pace.”

manyan@sph.com.sg