Infantry was crowned Singapore Horse of the Year at the 2017 Singapore Racing Awards gala night held at St Regis Hotel on Monday night.

The classy Alwin Tan-trained and Thai-owned five-year-old son of Tavistock was a model of consistency throughout his 2017 campaign. All his four victories came at Group level, including the Group 1 Emirates Singapore Derby and the Group 1 Panasonic Kranji Mile. Such was his will to win in the Kranji Mile that even after he sustained a deep cut to his near hind fetlock, he still ran through the pain barrier to score.

Besides landing the Horse of the Year title, Infantry was also voted the Champion Four-Year-Old and Champion Miler. 

Proud connections of the newly-crowned Horse Of The Year Infantry: (from left) wife of trainer Alwin Tan, Dr Kam Boon Horng and himself, Thai owner Mr Preecha Chaisirinon and his partners from the Kajorn Petch Racing No 2 stable, picture Singapore Turf Club 

In the other age groups, the Shane Baertschiger-trained Be Bee and the Michael Clements-trained Countofmontecristo were the winners in the two-year-old and three-year-old categories respectively. 

Be Bee was one of the leading juveniles, with the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe (1200m) the highlight, while Countofmontecristo landed the first two of the three Legs of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge, and was not disgraced in the last Leg, the Group 1 Singapore Guineas.

Besides emerging as the Most Improved Horse with a rise of 36 points, the Cliff Brown-trained Gilt Complex stamped himself as a late staying force in the year with back-to-back wins in the Group 1 Raffles Cup (1800m) and the Group 1 Dester Singapore Gold Cup (2200m), deservedly earning the Champion Stayer title as well as the Champion Older Horse award.

The Stephen Gray-trained Lim’s Cruiser walked away with the Champion Sprinter nod, mainly thanks to his stellar win in the Group 1 Lion City Cup (1200m) while Nova Swiss gave 2016 champion trainer Tan something to cheer about with the Champion Polytrack Horse trophy.The new Champion Trainer for 2017 was Mark Walker, who on 87 winners, picked up his second title after 2015.

The other premiership winners are Vlad Duric, who was notching his first Champion Jockey title ever, Wong Chin Chuen for his second Champion Apprentice Jockey title and the Lim’s Stable who, for the second consecutive year, swept both the Leading Owner by stakes won and Leading Owner by number of wins awards.

Singapore Turf Club racing commentator Thomas Wood won the Racing Media Award in the English section while Mr Liu Jincai, Chief Racing Editor of iRACE took the honours in the Chinese section.The complete list of winners is as follows:

The complete list of winners is as follows: