A front-running masterpiece from Gloria De Campeao landed the 2009 Singapore Airlines International Cup (G1) defeating a hard-charging Presvis while Bankable completed a Dubai International Racing Carnival trifecta finishing third.
This was the first race on turf for the Brazilian bred son of Impression (ARG) since the Prix Dollar (G2) in October at Longchamp where has was a lackluster eighth. Coming into the race off a second place finish well behind Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed, the Pascal Bary trainee landed his first win on grass since the Grande Premio Gervasio Seabra (G2) in October 2007 at Gavea in his native Brazil.
Presvis ran into a host of trouble attempting to weave through the field and shot clear late to just miss the winner. Bankable ran a most respectable third. The 2008 winner, Jay Peg, finished last in the final race of his career after setting the early pace.
While most observers admit that such a result was a bit surprising, the fractions of the 2000 meters race lead you to believe that the performance was superb. The times below correspond to the leader throughout the race with the internal 400 meters fractions noted in parentheses:
400 meters – :24.0
800 meters – :48.3 (24.3)
1200 meters – 1:11.4 (23.1)
1600 meters – 1:35.3 (23.4)
2000 meters – 1:59.1 (23.3)
Following the win, Bary noted the horse will ship back to his main operation in France and regroup. Gloria De Campeao is a 6-year-old, intact horse, which could factor into the decision making process.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Sacred Kingdom won the KrisFlyer International Sprint over local unbeaten star Rocket Man with Godolphin’s Diabolical third. The final time of 1:07.77 was blazing over the Kranji Racecourse turf.