Royal Commission wins with authority

Tim Fitzsimmons' concerns about the 1,000m being too short proved unfounded for maiden winner Royal Commission on Feb 3.

The 2022 Singapore champion trainer has been testing the Starcraft three-year-old over a variety of distances since his Kranji debut on Aug 6, 2023, but never shorter than 1,100m.

Up until then, his most forward showing was a third place in an Open Maiden race (1,200m) on Dec 9, less than one length behind the winner Star North.

As another measure of Royal Commission's scope, that run proved to be a winning formline with Star North going on to win a Class 4 event (1,400m) on Feb 3.

With the sire being globetrotting champion miler Starcraft, the 1,400m could be right up Royal Commission's alley one day, but Fitzsimmons was playing it safe with the Gold Stable-owned galloper.

"I was only worried the 1,000m would be too sharp for him today," said the Australian horseman.

"He's better between 1,100m and 1,200m, maybe up to 1,400m one day. I'll try and find another race for him."

The patient handler is not one to cut corners with his horses. But he was sure glad Royal Commission picked that day to shed his maiden tag.

"I wanted to win a race for (Gold Stable's) Eugene Yong, who brought 20 guests to the races today," he said.

"It was a special day for him, and I'm so rapt they came down for the photo."

One of Singapore racing's long-standing supporters, the Gold Stable also has stock with Ricardo Le Grange, Tan Kah Soon and James Peters at Kranji, while still racing horses with Fitzsimmons' ex-boss Cliff Brown in Australia.

Four other runners carried the yellow-and-red diamonds on Feb 3 but, at short odds of $8, Royal Commission carried a little more pressure, too.

Five-time Singapore champion jockey Manoel Nunes' 10-out-of-10 handling, however, went a long way in making the journey easier to cope with.

If anything, the Brazilian must have giggled to himself in the backseat as two of the leading fancies, Blackbuck (Mohd Zaki, $31) and Wins Eight (Bruno Queiroz, $15) wore each other out in front.

The well strung-out chasing pack were noticeably paddling away, except for Royal Commission who was still travelling on the bridle in a one-out one-back position.

Blackbuck, however, proved to be no sitting duck when he grew another leg upon cornering.

Royal Commission was up for the task, though. The pair settled down for a good go inside the last 200m, with Blackbuck eventually outgunned by 1¼ lengths, fair and square.

Rubik Kid (Krisna Thangamani) ran on late for third, another 3/4 lengths away.

The winning time was 59.24sec for the 1,000m on the Polytrack.

While the build-up to Royal Commission's breakthrough came through his previous four starts, the last two under Nunes, a lot of the groundwork was also laid at his barrier trials.

The last one on Jan 25 was, to Nunes, the tipping point in the learning curve.

"He's been knocking on the door, but at his trial last week, he had blinkers on. I told Tim he was a bit keen," he said.

"I suggested we remove the blinkers and put a shadow roll instead. It seems to work.

"This horse is still very young. He will get better as he gets more mature."

With the Chinese New Year's Fortune Bowl meeting one week away, punters dream of red packets.

But the Feb 3 dress rehearsal turned out to be an odd tale of contrasting fortunes.

Royal Commission was the second of three odds-on favourites to get the day to a flying start, the other two being Lim's Bighorn ($6) and Smoke And Mirrors ($8).

A first hush descended on Kranji when Atlante Legend ($132) won Race 4, before second pick Schneider ($16) and top-elect Lim's Bestbreaker ($14) brought the smiles back.

But, most were taken to the cleaners in the second half.

After Navy Seals dropped the biggest bombshell at $281 in Race 7, it was all downhill with Per Incrown ($59), Flying Nemo ($68), The August ($81) and Star North ($40) also upsetting the odds.

manyan@sph.com.sg