Johnny Lim Banking on Pretty and Beautiful mares in trials

The horses from the Banker's Stable seem set to start some serious work, judging from their eye-catching runs in the first two barrier trials at Sungai Besi.

With the racing on Oct 19 moving up north to Ipoh, the action at the Selangor Turf Club was confined to the morning trials on Oct 14.

On the day, it all seemed to belongto trainer Johnny Lim Boon Thong and his illustrious team of "Bankers" owned by the Banker's Stable.

Banker's Pretty, their highest-rated galloper at 70, owned the first hit-out of the morning.

In quick succession, Banker's Beautiful cashed in on the second trial.

Sharp track-watchers would also have noticed that Banker's Strong and Banker's Two Six deposited themselves into second spot in both trials.

Their fifth runner, Banker's Thirtysix, finished fifth to Grand Duchess in the third trial.

Lim would have been proud of his team. Other than Banker's Thirtysix who ran unplaced first-up on May 18, the remaining four have yet to see action on the racetrack.

Among them, Banker's Pretty has certainly tossed down some pretty strong credentials at her first trial in Kuala Lumpur.

Ridden by Nuqman Rozi, the Starspangledbanner five-year-old mare came from fourth spot at the home turn to run down her stablemate and early leader, Banker's Strong (Farhan Ghazali), to win by three lengths in the opening trial.

The Australian-bred also did it in fine style, clocking 59.44sec for the 1,000m trip.

Next up and not to be outdone, her stablemate - Banker's Beautiful - was also in flowing form. The Strasbourg four-year-old won in almostidentical fashion.

She was in a line of four at the 450m mark under Nuqman. Opting to take a run on the extreme outside, she opened up in style to win by a massive five lengths from Banker's Two Six (Farhan).

And much as the Australian-bred mare did slow down in the closing stages of that hit-out, she still managed to clock a good time of 1min 00.25sec.

They have yet to make their Malaysian debuts, but they are not to be taken lightly.

Both have strong overseas credentials.

Banker's Pretty, who raced as The Doll in South Australia, won three races and placed four times from nine starts when trained by Phillip Stokes.

Two of her three wins came earlierin 2025.

The first of those was on April 9, when she stormed home over the 1,200m at Murray Bridge in Adelaide.

In quick succession, she made it a race-to-race double when winning a handicap racefor fillies and mares over the 1,100m at Morphettville on May 31.

As for Banker's Beautiful, she raced as Coco Pop when under the care of Reece Goodwin, and she must have been quite a hit in the Australian state of Victoria.

She had seven starts for a win, a second and a third.

Her win came in a 1,000m Maiden event at Ballarat on April 2. That day, when ridden by Damian Lane, she grew wings over the final furlong to take the honours.

She missed out on a double when a close second at her next start in a BM58 Handicap on April 17.

Like Banker's Pretty, Lim has got a lively one in Banker's Beautiful, and it will be a treat watchingthem in action when they do make their debuts in Malaysia.

Elsewhere, and as expected, the 107-pointrater, Pacific Vampire, showed his fangs and his class when, in no uncertain terms, he demolished his rivals to win the fourth trial by a massive15 lengths.

That was after his last-start second to Bransom in the Magic Millions Horses In Training Sale Cup (1,020m) on Sept 28.

Ridden by his regular race-rider Jerlyn Seow, the Jason Ong-trained son of Impending stopped the clock at 59.28sec.

Good Star, trained by Mahadi Taib and ridden by Shafiq Rizuan, took second, just ahead of the Jerome Tan-trained Big Union (Akmazani Mazuki).

brian@sph.com.sg