Fortune Rising leaves smart impression at KL barrier trials

Looking at the action on the track on the morning of Feb 24, it would have been hard to guess that the gallopers had just resumed after the Chinese New Year break.

Just like there were some eye-catching gallops on the training track, the trials run off a little later also produced a couple of headliners.

One newcomer from trainer Richard Lim’s yard certainly got tongues wagging.

The four-year-old’s name is Fortune Rising and, right now, his only claim to fame has to be his swiftness of foot when winning his 1,000m trial in a fast time of 59.95sec.

Ridden by Shafiq Rizuan in the opening dash of the morning, Fortune Rising showed Malaysian racing fans at Sungai Besi some of the moves which made him quite a handy sort when he broke onto the Australian racing scene as a two-year-old in the latter half of 2023.

That season, when racing as Shangri La Express for leading Sydney trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, he won on debut on Oct 21, 2023, leading from pillar to post over the short 1,000m.

The thing which made that victory all the more memorable was the fact that it was not run at some country course – but at the Sydney city racetrack of Randwick.

As if to prove to any doubters that it was no flash in the pan, he made it two on the trot when, a month later, he again made all in a 1,100m race for two-year-olds, at Rosehill this time.

He even contested the Group 1 Golden Slipper (1,200m) in 2024, but beat one home.

While he did make the board in some of his subsequent runs Down Under, he was not able to duplicate those early successes.

The son of Alabama Express had his last Australian race start on Feb 1, 2025 and thereafter took up residence at Lim’s Sungai Besi stables.

The former jockey-turned-trainer has yet to nominate his charge for a local race.

But given that Fortune Rising now has a trial and a win under his girth, that day should come sooner rather than later.

One galloper whose name racegoers surely remember is Popeyethesailorman.

Winless at Kranji where he raced seven times under the charge of Donna Logan and Tim Fitzsimmons, he won first-up at Sungai Besi on March 17, 2024 and, thereafter, added three more victories to the pot.

However, he was sparingly raced in the 2025 season, but when he did show up, he did so in style, finishing second on Aug 2 and winning at his next start on Aug 17.

Now trained by Richard Lines for En Stable, Popeyethesailorman had his first outing of the year on Feb 24 and lost no marks – going down by just a shorthead to Fortune Rising.

Watch him at his next start. Like his namesake, the Reward For Effort six-year-old has muscles and when you least expect it, he can deliver a knockout blow.

Elsewhere at the trials, Dream Ma, who has yet to get off the mark in three starts, also tossed in a smart run.

Lining up with six others in the morning’s second hit-out, he was at the trials by order of the racing stewards after being fractious and difficult to load at his last start.

There was no such trouble this time and Dream Ma (Haikal Hanif) passed his test, beating Written Towin (Low Kang Cheng) by a length. The Headwater four-year-old lines up with 11 others in Race 11 on Feb 28.

On the strength of his barrier trial win, trainer Winson Cheng Han Yong will be looking for a more than decent run after he came home first in a respectable time of 1min 0.31sec.

Also on Feb 24, there was double happiness in the Cheng camp.

Not only did Dream Ma do him proud in the second trial, he saddled the winner and runner-up in the third. Both were two of his newcomers who have yet to be named.

The winner was a six-year-old by Spieth who beat Cheng’s other unnamed newcomer – a six-year-old by Proisir – by half-a-length and in a time of 1:00.18.

Of the two, the son of Spieth boasts the better credentials. He won three sprint races as Call Me Louis in New South Wales in Australia before being moving to Hong Kong where, as Gor Mo Tuen, he failed to fire in 12 starts.

A third name awaits at his new Sungai Besi home where he may resume his winning ways and, perhaps, make a name for himself.

brian@sph.com.sg