Gareth Pepper
This past weekend saw the best racing of the season so far. We were entertained with three feature races – the Admiralty Classic, the Queen Elizabeth II Cup and the Gr1 Lion City Cup, writes Gareth Pepper.
The first produced a new contender for the Derby. His name is Hughsy and he won the first feature as he liked. He had to survive an objection from runner-up Bourban Goldman, but he has now shown his true ability and joins the ranks of contenders for the Derby.
The QEII Cup produced the finish of the day.
Eventual winner Stepitup had nowhere to go and a mountain to climb and left his run late under a forceful and determined ride by champion jockey Manoel Nunes. He got up where it counted most and was rewarded for a wonderful career thus far with this big win.
Well done to the Laxon yard and assistant trainer Shane Ellis who has been holding the fort while Laxon has been tending to personal matters in his native New Zealand. He will now head to the SIAI Cup.
War Affair
The main event on the card was the highly anticipated and most probably the most competitive race of the season. Reigning horse of the year War Affair was making his seasonal debut, Zac Spirit was looking to continue his winning streak and Michael Clement’s 3yo filly Kiwi Karma was being tested at the highest level.
War Affair’s stable mate Petrenui was sent out to the lead and set lightning sectionals. Kiwi Karma and Zac Spirit were happy to sit just off the blistering pace and when turning for home both made a gallant dash for the line.
It looked , with 100m to go, that Zac had fought off all challengers, but it was War Affair with a determined run down the outside that won in the shadow of the post. Although too short for him, the blistering pace played into his hands and he won. I
It is onto the 4 yo series for him and it is all systems go for the game galloper.
I will be focusing on the SIA CUP and the Krisflyer Sprint in the next few weeks as we are just three weeks away from our meeting of the year.
Craig Evans
Number 1 race- caller in Singapore is Craig Evans. He will generally call the second half of the card.
Born into racing, the son of a bookmaker has 4 older brothers who have all trained racehorses.
Craig started young, strapping a Gold Cup winner at 10 and calling his first race at 14 at Carnarvon. In 1988 he made the move to Perth where he called Gallops, Harness Races and the Greyhounds. He called many of the Western Australia features during his tenure there.
In 2007 he made the move to Singapore with his wife Joanna and children Will , a massive horseracing fan and someone who knows the form both locally and international inside and out (follow him on twitter @puntathon), and youngest daughter Kate.
Rocket Man under Felix Coetzee wins the 1200m Gr1 KrisFlyer International Sprint
Rocket Man is the best horse Craig has seen and called here and he was lucky enough to travel to Dubai, Hong Kong and Japan to follow the champion’s progress around the world.
His career highlight was calling Rocket Man to victory in the Krisflyer Sprint and to date he has called 4 renewals of the sprint and the SIA Cup. Craig also has a passion for live broadcasts and he has taken a keen interest in developing new ideas for the turf club’s broadcasts.
A keen sports enthusiast, family man and lover of his boxer Paris, he loves AFL and cycling and by his own admission, he would have been a terrific cyclist were it not for the fact that he was fat, slow and overweight!
Neil Andrews – familiar face to SA fans
No stranger to South Africa, Craig hosted the Cape Thoroughbred Sales Book 1 sale live webcast in 2014 with Emma Spencer and Neil Andrews and met many of our racing fraternity.
Always open to offers to return and host gigs in SA, he loves the country and hopes to return on another visit in the not too distant future.
Craig is very active on twitter and for some insights into racing in Singapore why not follow him on @tropicscaller.
Till next time.
