Mauritian jockey Nooresh Juglall is riding on the crest of a wave after he brought up a riding double to cap his weekend with three winners and make it into the Top 5 in Singapore.
After sitting in sixth spot coming into this weekend of racing at Kranji, Juglall was able to overtake Alan Munro courtesy of a first win on Friday night aboard Mings Man followed by Heracles and McGregor on Sunday to bring his 2017 tally to 44.
The devout Hindu’s first words after ringing up the second Leg of his Sunday brace were to wish a Happy Diwali or Deepavali (coming up on Wednesday) to all his fellow Indians.
McGregor (Nooresh Juglall) keeps Supernova (Vlad Duric) at bay to take out the Class 3 race on Sunday, picture Singapore Turf Club.
“I’d like to wish everybody a Happy Diwali, especially to my mum and dad and my lovely wife Chaaya,” said Juglall.
“Things are going really well for me at the moment and I’d like to thank all the trainers and owners who have been supporting me.
“Those two winners today were hard work but it was all worth the effort in the end.”
Aboard Heracles ($23) in the $35,000 Class 5 race over 1200m, Juglall was seen at his patient best as he brought the Kuah Cheng Tee-trained Italian-bred with a well-timed run to just blouse Jacks Secret out and deny Mark Walker’s new four-kilo-claiming apprentice jockey Hanafi Noorman of a first win by a short head. The winning time was 1min 11.62secs for the 1200m on Polytrack.
Bolstered by that hard-fought win, Juglall was again seen earning every cent of his riding fee in the next race, the day’s highlight, the $80,000 Class 3 race over 1400m. This time he had to search deep into his bag of tricks to outsmart Supernova (Vlad Duric) after showing the way aboard the Michael Clements-trained McGregor.
Winless since May in Class 4 company, the $62 outsider was heading towards a place prizemoney cheque at best when Supernova collared him 400m out with an ominous run.
But when Juglall saw Supernova rolling out, he decided to keep his mount close to Supernova’s nearside, presumably in a bid to rekindle McGregor’s fighting instincts by keeping close to the enemy.
Supernova had a neck in front, but was making heavy weather of it even if Duric was going flat out. Bruce Marsh’s ward just could not put the race to bed, while McGregor seemed all fired up again as he came back to regain a razor-thin advantage which he was able to maintain all the way to the line to scrape home by a head.
Rank-outsider Valbuena (Alan Munro) who was first-up from an eight-month spell, whacked away late into the top three to finish just one length astern. The winning time was 1min 23.18secs for the 1400m on the Long Course.
“I was surprised to see Supernova so handy today. My horse was looking for company and he dug down deep,” said Juglall.
“When Vlad’s horse drifted out, we carried on with him and in the end, it was a very gutsy win.
“He’s a horse who gets his confidence when he has things his way. Like today, we got a cheap run through the race, the Long Course stretched him a bit, but thank God, he hung on well.
“A big thank you goes to Mr Clements, his assistant (Michael White) and the owner (Graham Mackie). I’m just glad to be the one sitting on top.”
With Clements away, White said he did give all the low-down to Juglall, who has never partnered the Magic Albert seven-year-old at his previous 29 starts, in the parade ring.
“I did tell Nooresh he is the kind of horse who will land in a good spot if he pings the gates, but if he is slow out, he will be in no man’s land,” said White.
“It was a perfect ride. This horse can win again if he can mend his racing manners.
“We just have to find the right race for him.”
After that fifth win from 30 outings, McGregor has bumped up his stakes earnings past the $230,000 mark for Mackie.
