Amistad gives trainer Young his first winner
6YO grey leads all the way to beat Prince Ferdinand by a head
After about half a year since branching out on his own, trainer Young Keah Yong finally got the monkey off his back at Kranji yesterday.
The 39-year-old Singaporean, who was assistant trainer to Desmond Koh before being granted a licence by the Malayan Racing Association and granted stables by the Singapore Turf Club, saddled his first winner when $50 outsider Amistad led all the way in Race 5.
Young must have been biting his nails and said "oh no, not again" when his six-year-old grey was threatened in the straight as Prince Ferdinand loomed up with good momentum on the inside.
But, with apprentice S Shafrizal riding well yesterday, Amistad managed to hang on to win by a head in the Class 5 event over 1,200m.
It was Young's 65th runner to date and a double for Shafrizal, who took the opening event on the Mohd Yusof-trained $128 outsider Let's Talk Now.
Last year, Young sent out 50 runners for a second and three thirds. Amistad was his 15th runner this season.
His other runner in Amistad's race, Toobigtofail, ran fourth.
Until yesterday, Young was the only trainer still without a winner to his name at Kranji.
FIRST CAREER WIN
"It's a great day for me, finally got my first career win," said the happy trainer.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the club for giving me the licence and stables and, most of all, to my owners who have been hanging on with me for the past few months without any results."
Young reckoned he would do better this year despite having only a small team in his yard.
"Now I have about 25 horses, in the process of building up and maybe this year I will have more in the months to come."
Young was unlucky not to break the duck last year.
His new horse, Crown Gift, was placed in all three starts and was badly hampered last time out. Crown Gift picked himself up and flew home to finish a narrow second to Black Quail.
"You know, he was three times unlucky, so hopefully, he'll be my next one," said Young.
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