Shepherd's Hymn is on song again
With improvement, trainer Clements’ last-start runner-up should go one better in small field
Three wins, seven seconds and three thirds from 25 starts.
That is a decent record by any standards from the Michael Clements-trained and Maju Racing Stable-owned Shepherd’s Hymn.
With luck, a few of those seconds could have been “1s”, instead of “2s”. Take for example his two runner-up positions from his last three starts.
In his last outing on April 17, over the Polytrack 1,600m, he had to cover more ground than his 11 Class 4 rivals due to being trapped wide all the way.
After jumping for the outer-most barrier (Gate 12), jockey Manoel Nunes could not get to the inside for cover.
His keen mount had to shy away from another runner passing the winning post for the first time.
After moving up from the back straight, albeit being pumped a bit early to keep up, the five-year-old again shied away from another horse at the top of the straight.
Nunes had to stop riding for a while to straighten and balance up.
Shepherd’s Hymn got going again, but the James Peters-trained and Louis-Philippe Beuzelin-ridden Amore Amore had stolen the race with a big breakaway in the straight.
Shepherd’s Hymn lost by 13/4 lengths.
In his Feb 13 start, over 1,600m on turf, he “had difficulty obtaining completely clear running from the 450m mark until approaching the 250m mark”.
Still, he ran on gallantly to finish second to stablemate Global Kid, who won by just 3/4 lengths.
From Gate 5 tomorrow in a small winnable race, Nunes should get Shepherd’s Hymn to the box seat with cover. He could then relax his mount to reserve some energy for the kill in the straight.
Shepherd’s Hymn truly looks the best bet of the day. That will be at 4.30pm in Race 10, the $50,000 Class 4 event over the Poly 1,700m.
While Nunes has, as always, a good book of rides, dual champion (jockey and apprentice) Hakim Kamaruddin is another to follow.
The Kelantan native, who has ridden three winners since his comeback from a long suspension over a head-hitting incident on his horse last November, has four winning chances among his 10 good rides.
He can start the ball rolling as early as Race 1 on the Jason Ong-trained What You Like, a horse he has partnered to win twice in the gelding’s three victories.
Mind you, his last success was in Class 4 with a rating of 52. Tomorrow, he is in Class 5 on 44 points.
If you had seen his second placing in his trial two weeks ago, you would have been convinced that he is set to bounce back.
Another pointer: The horse who beat him in that trial was last Saturday’s winner and Singapore Derby wannabe, Relentless.
Hakim’s three other top rides are the Tim Fitzsimmons-trained last-start fourth Thunder (Race 3), Donna Logan-trained last-start winner Olympia (Race 4) and Ricardo Le Grange-trained last-start third City Hall.
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