A haul of four winners has in the space of two meetings vaulted Alan Munro to second spot on the Singapore premiership ladder.

Fifth on 26 winners before the weekend’s hostilities, the English hoop is currently riding on the crest of a wave, which kept swelling up with a riding double on Kokoni and Platoon on Friday night, followed by Humdinger and Secret Squirrel on Sunday.

Munro is now two winners behind current leader Vlad Duric (32 winners), but the low-key jockey would rather see the wood for the trees.
 

Secret Squirrel (Alan Munro, in blue and red stars cap) strides away from his rivals to get on the scoresheet, picture Singapore Turf Club

“In racing, you have the good runs and the bad runs. Right now, things are going well for me and long it may last,” said the English Derby-winning jockey.

At his seventh season in Singapore, Munro who has ridden around the world with success, notably Hong Kong, Japan and Qatar, has always figured at the top end at Kranji, never worse than sixth, with a third place on 79 winners in 2013 as his best finish.

What makes his performance even more commendable is the fact he is not the No 1 rider for any powerful stable or any particular stable for that matter, though he does tend to be the go-to man for trainer Hideyuki Takaoka.

All up, he has racked up a total of 334 winners, with the latest being the John O’Hara-trained Secret Squirrel, the even-money favourite in the $35,000 Open Maiden race over 1100m.

Not one to expound on his winners, Munro would still make it a point to sum up the ride in his short and sweet style.

“I first rode Secret Squirrel in his barrier trial and he was very stressed,” he said about the Exceed And Excel four-year-old who is normally ridden by the currently suspended Troy See.

“But he was not stressed today and he won a nice race.”

O’Hara for one was delighted he had picked the right man for the steering job on Secret Squirrel.

“Finally, a win from this horse, but I have to say Munro gave him the perfect ride. The horse got a good tow into the straight, and when he pressed the button, he let down very well,” said the Singaporean trainer.

“This horse has been knocking on the door for a while, and he deserves to get a win for his owners (Fraternity Stable), including Kenneth Lim.”

Punted down to $10 favouritism, Secret Squirrel, who was at his sixth start, enjoyed an ideal run in transit, one-out one-back behind race-leader D’Great Star (Saifudin Ismail) with Divergent (Glen Boss) as cover for most of the 1100m journey.

As Munro peeled his mount across the two leaders at the 400m, the stage was all set for a three-horse go. D’Great Star and Divergent stuck it out, but it was Secret Squirrel on the outside who eventually gained the upperhand before pulling away to a 1 ¼-length win from D’Great Star.

Divergent did well to stay on for third place another length away. The winning time was 1min 5.1secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.