Kiwi breds dominate at final Penang meeting

[Wandering Eyes]

New Zealand bred horses won five of the seven races carded at the final meeting to be staged by the Penang Turf Club in Malaysia on Saturday.

Trainer Simon Dunderdale was full of praise for jockey Blaike McDougall after he piloted Sacred Buddy (NZ) (Sacred Falls) to victory in the RM150,000 Penang Turf Club Memorial Trophy (1100m).

Making his third appearance in the country after notching five wins from Open Maiden to Class 4 at Kranji, the Sacred Falls gelding overcame a check halfway through the Cosmo C set-weight race and took a split between runners in the final 200m to claim victory by a neck.

“He (McDougall) is a class jockey,” said Dunderdale who also combined with McDougall to take out the opening event on Bull Fight.

“The horse (Sacred Buddy) has been improving since he came over from Singapore.”

Sacred Buddy rewrote the 1110m track record with a time of 1 min 2.80 second, shaving 0.9 second off the previous best set in 2013.

“We got a check but he (Sacred Buddy) refused to be beaten and came home strongly,” said McDougall who was riding at the track at the first and last time.

“It is a lovely track and it’s sad racing has to end here.”

Talkingtalkingguru (NZ) (Telperion) got his second win in succession in the Special Class 5 (1200m). The former Singapore runner has got all three career wins since arriving in Malaysia.

Graphjet Express (NZ) (Belardo) got a hard fought victory in the in the RM100,000 Jockey Club of Turkiye Trophy (1400m) he returned to racing earlier this month after being on the sidelines for nine months.

Another former Singapore galloper, previously raced as Tenebrosi with Te Akau Racing, Contarelli (NZ) got his third win since arriving in Malaysia in the Special Class 4 (1400m).

Lucky Magic (NZ) (Mendelssohn), who won the Penang Gold Cup on this track last December, will go down in history as the very last winner in Penang, taking out the last race (Special Rapid Stakes A- 1300m).

The Mendelssohn gelding has now won seven of 12 starts since arriving in the country from New Zealand.

“I had some good winners here. I will miss the place,” said trainer Cheng Han Yong as he and the connections of Lucky Magic unhurled a banner with the words “We will miss you forever Penang Turf Club” at the winner’s enclosure.

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