Former New Zealand racehorse trainer Bruce Marsh has captured one of the biggest prizes in the Singapore racing calendar.
Marsh produced Hello And Goodbye to win the group one S$800,000 ($714,670) Emirates Singapore Derby (2000m) at the Kranji racecourse on Sunday night.
One of the outsiders in the race, restricted
to four-year-olds, Hello And Goodbye led all the way to score at odds of 142-1.
"He got out in front by six or eight lengths at one stage and just kept on going," a thrilled Marsh said from Singapore.
At the finish Hello And Goodbye still had a 2 1/4 length margin over the rest.
Hello And Goodbye's win is Marsh's first Singapore success since he moved there from Palmerston North in March.
Marsh has taken about a dozen horses to Singapore from New Zealand and Hello And Goodbye is one of three that he has been given to train by a Singapore owner.
The horse had been prepared by another Singapore trainer previously but was considered unruly and used to regularly bolt when worked on the training tracks.
"All the credit for this win must go to Kayla Veenendaal, the girl that has come over with me from New Zealand to ride my work," Marsh said.
"She has ridden this horse every morning in running reins and has really settled him down."
Marsh, who has trained the winners of six group one races in New Zealand as well as many major races in Australia, rated this victory as one of the highlights of his 30-year training career.
"It is huge, a great thrill," the excited trainer said.
- NZPA
