Champion New Zealand stallion Darci Brahma ran 1-2 in the $80,000 Class 3 Division 2 race over 1400m on Sunday.

Brahma Circus (Zawari Razali) dug down deep inside the last 250m to stave off challenges left right and centre to eventually prevail by a head from the other son of Darci Brahma in the 11-horse field, Darci Charmer (Olivier Placais).

Third-placed was Fortune Six (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) who finished another head third on the inside. The winning time was 1min 22.71secs for the 1400m on the Long Course. 



Brahma Circus (Zawari Razali) sticks on gamely to hold off late challengers in Race 9, picture Singapore Turf Club

By coincidence, both Brahma Circus and Darci Charmer have had a fairly identical career path - 38 runs under the belt, both on seven wins and more or less the same amount of prizemoney around the $450,000 mark.

Their last starts were also both on November 24, but in two different races. Brahma Circus was beaten in sixth place by Ares in a 1400m race while Darci Charmer ran ninth to Mighty Conqueror.

Winning trainer James Peters was for one happy the photo has gone his way. Brahma Circus was his only runner of the day.

“It was worth getting off the sofa. When I went through the race, there was not much speed and I told Zawari to use his gate (2) to get in a good spot,” said the British handler.

“He looked the winner at the top of the straight but I was a bit worried about 1400m first-up. He did get tired, but all his career, he has always given 100%.

“A big thank you to his owners Ronnie and Andrew for their patience. The horse is getting a bit old now and he has niggling issues, but we’ll just have to manage him.”