SINGAPORE LADY STEPS UP TO THE PLATE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, December 17, 2022

Talk about knocking at the door ... well, that’s exactly what the Tony and Maddysen Sears trained Singapore Lady was doing in her first two career starts in which she claimed runner-up finishes in both starts.

No surprise then that the door opened and she was able to claim her first career victory in only her third start when she proved to be too good for the opposition in a Maiden Plate over 1100m at the Gold Coast on December 17.

Singapore Lady’s two second places leading into the Gold Coast contest had both come over the 800m dash. This time the Sears camp stepped the distance test up to 1100m and that, as well as the growing level of fitness and race experience gained in those two earlier starts, helped her to go one better.

Jockey Michael Hellyer did have the disadvantage of a number eight barrier draw to content with ... and it didn’t help that Singapore Lady (the $3 favourite) was only ordinarily away at the jump ... but, Hellyer wasted no time in making his intentions quite clear as he quickly chased Singapore Lady past runners to the degree that the daughter of Cabe Bay found the lead after the runners had travelled 300m.

Hellyer made sure that Singapore Lady then did enough in the middle stages of the race to hold her advantage at the head of affairs, before swinging wide on straightening, which was the pattern of the day, to race just three off the outside rail.

As the saying goes, Singapore Lady had to be good enough to do it at both ends to win this one, as she had horses snapping at her heels on either side, but good enough she was!

She kicked on strongly to the line, showing she was up for a fight in no uncertain terms by handling some significant pressure with a steely determination.
Her winning margin was 0.50 lengths.

Singapore Lady had passed her test with flying colours, not only coping with the 300m step up in distance (from 800m to 1100m), but also showing some versatility as she achieved this result on soft going (her previous two starts were on a good surface) ... a factor which would appear to further open up her options moving forward.

More articles