Malaysian jockey Mohd Zaki franked his special bond with Japanese mare Sun Hancock with yet another win on Sunday.
The Kelantan rider has four wins on the board this season, with three of them coming from the Spicule mare - and the other one famously aboard a then-unknown Countofmontecristo at his Kranji debut - the latest recorded in Sunday’s $35,000 Class 5 race over 1800m.
Sun Hancock has actually never scored with any other jockey. She suddenly brought a long barren run since her Kranji debut in November 2015 to an end with her maiden win under Zaki on May 21.
Mohd Zaki looks back to check how far ahead Sun Hancock is in Race 6, picture Singapore Turf Club
The pair then found one better before bouncing back to the winner’s circle at her next start on June 30 before linking up again on Sunday, and scoring back-to-back wins this time.
The three wins have all come in the same type of event: Class 5 race over 1800m, though the last one was on Polytrack.
The other significant difference with Sunday’s win was the racing tactic. Sent out as the $16 favourite, Sun Hancock did not take up the bunny role this time.
Zaki certainly has a great affinity with the mare as he clearly knows which buttons to push even when the speedmap changes.
“I like this mare a lot. I work her every day and I’m glad she gave me a third win for the year,” said Zaki.
“The boss (trainer Hideyuki Takaoka) told me to try and go forward from the wide gate (8), but to drop back if other horses are quicker.
“She was always travelling well behind the other two horses (The One and Sun Dance). As I had a lot of horse, I decided to go early and she won easily.”
Unable to hold the mare any longer, Zaki indeed cut the ribbons at the point of the turn where she swept past The One (Moon Se Young) and Sun Dance (Wong Chin Chuen) with ease to open up to a commanding break.
The rest were struggling to stay in her slipstream as the gap kept widening, but she also started to shorten up inside the last 50m. Runner-up Toobigtofail (Alan Munro) cut back the margin to 2 ¾ lengths in the end with Sun Dance third another two lengths away, but at the winning post, Zaki could afford to stand up and pose for the camera. The winning time was 1min 53.34secs for the 1800m on the Polytrack.
“Zaki rode her well. He listened to my instructions but he also knows the mare very well,” said Takaoka.
“I still think she’s better off being ridden from the front.”
With that third win, Sun Hancock has now taken her stakes earnings close to the $80,000 mark for the Samurai Stable.
