Pacific Spirit gets into the mood at KL trials
Highly rated Pacific Vampire again puts his searing gate speed to good use in trial win
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Pacific Spirit (Oscar Chavez) strolling away to a dominant nine-length win in Trial No. 5 at Sungai Besi on Jan 13.
PHOTO: SELANGOR TURF CLUB
Brian Miller
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Looking at it any which way, it was a good morning at the trials which were run off at the Selangor Turf Club on Jan 13.
For one thing, the training spoils were rather evenly distributed.
Nick Selvan took the honours when he claimed two of the six trials with Prince Lonhro in the second and Rhythm Of Zen in the last, while the other four other winners were saddled by four different trainers.
The timings were not too shabby either.
Two of the four, who trialled on grass, came close to breaking the minute-mark for the 1,000m trip.
Still, the prize for outstanding performances of the morning had to be shared by two horses from the power-packed Pacific Stable.
Speed demon Pacific Vampire took the prize for the swiftest gallop when he won the opener in 1min 0.74sec.
In the fifth jump-out – which was on the sand track – Pacific Spirit proved to be the easiest winner of the day, beating Lim’s Puncak Jaya (Uzair Sharudin) by nine lengths.
Needless to say, with plenty of daylight between the Rip Van Winkle five-year-old and the rest, jockey Oscar Chavez was in no hurry to push his mount home.
The Panamanian allowed Pacific Spirit to cruise up in a relatively slow time of 1:03.23.
But if push had come to shove, Chavez would have stepped on the accelerator and Pacific Spirit would have taken off.
As it turned out, there was no need for dramatics. Pacific Spirit had done what he had to do. He had taken the lead after the runners had covered the initial 200m and he never gave it back.
Even if the time did not say so, it was a really smart win by the David Kok-trained two-time winner.
As for Pacific Vampire, he had the opening trial run on his terms.
Another one ridden by Chavez, Pacific Vampire had hit the front after 400m and thereafter he had his rivals chasing his shadow.
Then again, with his high rating of 100 points, anything less would have been unacceptable.
Like that last race on Jan 3. Racegoers sent him off as the $9 top pick but he burnt a hole in their pockets when he finished last.
Sure, he was obliged to race wide. But that was no excuse and the racing stewards agreed that he had to go for a 1,000m test gallop before his next start.
As it turned out, Pacific Vampire passed that test with flying colours and when trainer Jason Ong sends the Impending six-year-old out for his next race, a ninth career win will be at stake.
From that same trial, take note of runner-up, Omakase.
He fashioned a nice run at the top of the straight and was putting in his best work late.
Then again, one could say he lost no marks when going down to a talent like Pacific Vampire.
Trained by Lim Shung You, this Universal Ruler five-year-old has yet to show up in a race. But when he does, he could – on his overseas record – give a good account of himself.
Racing as Dialling in Western Australia, he won three races.
He opened his account at Kalgoorlie and then won two more races, both at Pinjarra. He also placed second and third on the city tracks of Ascot and Belmont.
On such a record, it could pay to follow his career in Malaysia.
Aside from the “Pacific” winners and that good run by Omakase, trainer Ricky Choi deserves a mention for saddling the quinella in the fourth trial of the day.
As part of a foursome who were locked in battle at the top of the straight, the Choi pair of Platinum Glory and Oriental Halflamma broke away and fought it out over the final furlong with Platinum Glory proving superior.
Scrubbed along, he beat his stablemate by a length and, with the trial being run on the slower sand track, he did clock a fairly decent time of 1:02.69.
