Trident Rising shows brilliant speed at trials
Trainer Choi brings up a double; trainer Cheng’s newcomer is another one to follow
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Trident Rising (Haikal Hanif) easily holding off fellow newcomer Perfect Return (Oscar Chavez) in the first barrier trial held in Sungai Besi on Aug 18.
PHOTO: SLTC
While trainer Ricky Choi and jockey Benny Woodworth stole the spotlight with two winners at the barrier trials run off on the morning of Aug 18, it was a newcomer from Winson Cheng Han Yong’s yard whose name went into many notebooks as a “horse to follow”.
At his first appearance at the Selangor Turf Club’s race track, Trident Rising straight away drew notice with an all-the-way win under 59 seconds for the 1,000m in the first trial.
Ridden by Haikal Hanif and jumping from gate No. 2 in that seven-horse affair, Trident Rising went on to stop the clock at 58.72sec.
The Hello Youmzain four-year-old arrived at Cheng’s Sungai Besi yard on March 7 with a record of one win and three seconds in Australia where he raced as Signoretti.
The solitary win was in a 1,450m event at the Tatura Racecourse which is in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria.
When the Tridentity-owned galloper does go to the races, he may well come through to justify his 56-point rating.
As for Choi’s two winners, they also showed muscle when claiming their respective trials.
In the second barrier trial, Storm To Finish was neatly away from gate No. 5 but Woodworth chose to let him settle in the slipstream of the Lawson Moy-trained newcomer, Moali (Uzair Sharudin).
When Woodworth gave him rein at the 275m, he opened up like a good horse, living up to his name in the closing stages.
At the post, Storm To Finish finished in advance of the Jason Ong-trained newcomer Pacific Alpha (Lim Shung Uai) by 3½ lengths, running the trip in 59.39sec. Moali, who was having an Official Race Trial, stayed on to fill third spot, a neck away.
A two-time winner from seven starts, Storm To Finish has been sparingly raced since arriving in Malaysia on Feb 15, 2025.
But Storm To Finish has not been idle. The Anders four-year-old has been to four trials – including this latest hit-out – and he has won them all.
In the very next trial, Woodworth was legged up on the Choi-trained runner, Glory. There was no hanging around that time.
Woodworth took the King’s Legacy three-year-old to the fore from the get-go and although threatened by Mega Swift (Oscar Chavez) and later, Smart Like Jason (Fikri Ismail), they held on to their advantage and took the trial by a neck.
Glory clocked 1min 0.15sec for the 1,000m.
For a first time in a competitive setting, Glory held his own very well. When challenged, he was not intimidated.
Mention must also go to runner-up Smart Like Jason.
He came home with big, bounding strides over the final furlong to grab that second spot from Mega Swift.
He was at the trials by order of the club’s vets after he returned lame at his last start on Feb 8. It has been a long time between outings but it has paid off.
Smart Like Jason passed his test and is now cleared for racing.
Also getting a passing mark was My Determination (Jackson Low Kang Cheng) in barrier trial No. 4.
Sent to the trials after returning from his last race with “respiratory distress”, the Richard Lines-trained six-time winner showed the issue was clearly behind him when he coasted home a neck winner in a time of 59.98sec.
From the way he worked home with purpose, the Dundeel eight-year-old is not done with racing, and would not surprise anyone if, at his next race, he gives his younger rivals a galloping lesson towards a seventh win.
