NZ bred Debt Collector stormed away a major winner at the 2016 Singapore Racing Awards held on Tuesday night at Fullerton Hotel by sweeping five awards including the coveted Singapore Horse of the Year title.

The Cliff Brown-trained four-year-old son of Thorn Park enthralled Kranji with his devastating turn of foot at all his six wins, including the last two Legs of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge and the first two Legs of the Singapore Triple Crown Series to make it three Group 1 wins – Singapore Guineas (3^rd Leg of 3YO Challenge) and Panasonic Kranji Mile and Raffles Cup (1^st and 2^nd Legs, Triple Crown).

Raced by Victorian owners Barree Stable, Debt Collector was unsurprisingly voted the Champion Three-Year-Old while his two wins over the metric mile in the Guineas and the Kranji Mile earned him the Champion Miler accolade. To cap off a memorable night, he also grabbed the Most Improved Horse and Social Media Horse of the Year awards.

The three champs: (from left) Wong Chin Chuen (champion apprentice jockey), Alwin Tan (champion
trainer) and Manoel Nunes (champion jockey) pose proudly with their trophies.
 

In the other age groups, the Steven Burridge-trained Lim’s Racer and the David Kok-trained Well Done were the victors in the two-year-old and four-year-old categories.

While Red Giant filly Lim’s Racer’s highlight was winning one of the two juvenile features, the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe (1200m), Well Done, a son of Falkirk, snared two of the three Legs of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge, the two Group 1 events, the Patron’s Bowl (1600m) and the Emirates Singapore Derby (2000m).

Thanks to his Group wins at the highest level at his third Singapore season, namely the Group 2 Chairman’s Trophy (1800m) and the Group 3 Fortune Bowl (2000m), Quechua showed he was still a force to be reckoned with and thoroughly deserved his Champion Older Horse nod while the three remaining titles in the distance and surface category, the Champion Sprinter, Champion Stayer and Champion Polytrack Horse, respectively went to Group 1 Lion City Cup (1200m) winner Zac Spirit for Brown’s sixth time going up the stage, Group 1 Dester Singapore Gold Cup (2200m) winner Bahana for trainer Stephen Gray and last but not least, Spalato, the winner of the Group 2 Merlion Trophy (1200m) on the alternative track for trainer John O’Hara back in March.

Mr Glenn Whittenbury of Barree Racing Stable receives the Singapore Horse of the Year 2016 award
for Debt Collector from Singapore Turf Club Chairman Mr Lim Joo Boon.
 

With a haul of 90 winners, Alwin Tan won his first Champion Trainer title at his seventh season at Kranji to become the first local trainer to finish on top since Charles Leck in 2003. The other premiership winners are Manoel Nunes for his third consecutive Champion Jockey title, Wong Chin Chuen for his first Champion Apprentice Jockey title and former multiple champion owner Lim’s Stable who swept both the Leading Owner by stakes won and Leading Owner by number of wins awards since their comeback to racing two years ago.

Singapore Turf Club racing editor Michael Lee won the Racing Media Award in the English section for the second time after he first earned it in 2014 while Chia Teng Liang of Shin Min Daily News took the honours in the Chinese section.

The complete list of winners is as follows: