MAJOR TOM does it again – back to back wins in Singapore

Promising three year old MAJOR TOM, who was most impressive when winning for the first time in Singapore mid February, took a significant step forward in his racing career, when again winning impressively at Singapore’s Kranji race course Sunday 12th March. Unlike at his last win, where MAJOR TOM had beaten other non winners, this time he faced no less than 5 other last start winners and 3 more that had won a race in their last two starts. In the end, it was only the Japanese bred filly, Makanani, who posed any sort of threat to Major Tom. Aided by a smart ride by Derek David, the filly sped to the lead early in the run, then controlled that tempo from the front, and with a weight advantage of 5kgs over Major Tom, she looked as if she would be hard to pull back as they turned. However, Rizuan Shafiq, aboard Major Tom had the son of Darci Brahma well positioned one out and one back as they turned – moving to the outside and under a confident ride by Shafiq, he gradually wore the filly down – she didn’t give up without a fight however, going down by a short head with a further 1.7 lengths back to the 3rd horse.

Click HERE to see race replay.

Understandably, Fortuna Director, John Galvin was very happy with his charge; “We have always had a lot of time for this horse, he has a touch of class about him and this victory tonight has franked our opinion of him as the type of horse that could be very competitive in the Group One Singapore Guineas in May – Trainer Mark Walker has done a great job with him and we believe that he has a lot of improvement still to come,” he said.

Major Tom was purchased privately by John Galvin in a deal brokered by Te Akau supremo, David Ellis. He is raced by an ownership group of 31 people, many of whom are now booking flight to be in attendance at Kranji May 14th for Singapore Guineas.