Apprentice jockey Rozlan Nazam sits on top of the apprentice jockey’s log for the first time thanks to his Kranji double on Saturday.
Indentured to trainer Ricardo Le Grange, Rozlan sat on nine wins before the meeting, one less than fellow apprentice jockey Jerlyn Seow, but he quickly fired in two wins atop Stop The Water and Great Command, bringing his season tally to 11 wins.
Stop The Water (Rozlan Nazam) gets off the mark in Race 2 (Pic – Singapore Turf Club)
Seow almost hit back with Akhtar later but was nosed out by Sacred Gift on the line.
She will, however, miss the last two meetings on 17 and 30 December and the New Year Cup meeting on 6 January for careless riding on Superior Coat last Saturday.
Rozlan knew he cannot take things lightly, even if there are only three meetings left to go.
“Too early to tell. I have to keep working hard,” said the Singaporean apprentice jockey, who began riding in July last year.
“I’ll try to go for the title, but I’d be happy if Jerlyn wins it because we’re good friends and we never had a female champion apprentice jockey here before.
“It’s thanks to my light weight (46kgs) that I won on Great Command. I will miss my four-kilo claim!”
Great Command staved off Southern Speed, who carried nine-and-a-half kilos more, to score in the SG$50,000 Nova Strike 2017 Stakes, a Class 4 Division 2 race.
The four-kilo claimer will only be allowed to claim three kilos from the next meeting onwards as he has clocked in more than 10 wins.
Of his first winner, Stop The Water, in the SG$75,000 Pennywise 2019 Stakes, a Restricted Maiden race, Rozlan followed riding instructions closely and only let the Headwater three-year-old motor home in the last two furlongs.
“Jockey Matthew Kellady rode him a bit too rushed at his last start, so today, Trainer Steven Burridge said to jump and if possible, let him go forward fast,” he said.
“After we took the lead, I hugged the horse, kept him settled and reserved as much energy as I can because he’s on the Long Course.
“At the 400m, I started to wriggle on him, gave him a slap on the shoulder and he went on from there.
“It was my second ride for Steven but that’s my first win for him.”
Punted down to favouritism upon jumping, Stop The Water led early on the rails but Lim’s Jinba A’Isisuhairi Kasim took over the lead momentarily after he coursed out wide at the 850m.
Even so, Rozlan sat unfazed in the saddle as the field turned for home. Into the straight, Lim’s Jinba and Flying Success (Iskandar Rosman) started to give chase while Fire (Vitor Espindola) made quick inroads on the outside.
But, the ground-saving run Rozlan gave Stop The Water helped in the last 300m as he was seen drawing clear from his rivals, albeit still a bit green at the end.
Fire finished two lengths away in second while Flying Success ran another one-and-a-half lengths away in third. The winning time was 1 min 10.24secs for the 1200m on the Long Course.
Burridge, who bagged a treble after Shihab and My Determination also scored in the SG$20,000 Daniel 2016 Stakes, a Maiden race and SG$30,000 Johnny Guitar 2014 Stakes, a Class 5 race respectively later on, praised Rozlan for his patient handling of the Fairdeal & Ronald Lau Stable-owned gelding.
“I’ve had quite a few seconds for Owner Theresa Lee lately, so it was nice to get a win for her,” said the veteran Australian conditioner.
“We carried 52.5kgs on 25 November and he’s only a small horse at 484kgs. I was going to put Jockey Matthew Kellady on but he had a ride, so I thought ‘why not claim?’ Rozlan rides quite nicely and she was happy to put him on.
“I sat him in yesterday, showed him the videos and told him about the horse. He listened quickly and it’s always good when an apprentice jockey wins.
“He settled him nicely. I told him to wait till the 400m if Stop The Water was travelling because he’s a bit of a suspect over the trip.
“He stacked them up nicely. I was a little bit worried when the Lim’s Jinba took him on but given he also backed up in seven days, he’s done a good job.
“He had a hard run the other day (second to Aniki) and he wouldn’t run this time if he hadn’t eaten up well.
“Bloodstock agent Blake Ryan mentioned the horse to Jockey Vlad Duric, he mentioned to Theresa and she bought the horse.”
Bought for A$38,000 as a yearling, Stop The Water has opened his account second-up and took his earnings to over SG$40,000 for connections.
