BRUTUS leads all the way to win in Singapore 18th September – bringing up 14 wins for the Fortuna Singapore Team in 2021

5yo Gelding BRUTUS (Rubick – Harvest Queen) does not make a habit of regularly saluting the judge – indeed it was 364 days since his last (and first) Singapore win, but in the 12 intervening starts, he had finished in 9 prize money winning placings, so has been a model of consistency.

Back to Class 5 for this event was a positive, but drawing wide over the 1200m trip required equally positive tactics – the ride had been entrusted to Te Akau Apprentice and Singapore’s current leading rider, K Hakim and he and horse followed the plan to script, leaving the barrier well and pushing forward – two of the inside runners would not hand up easily though and BRUTUS had to do a bit of work to get to the front – Hakim was able to give him a bit of a breather during the run and he was clear on turning, however the challengers were starting to appear, particularly from the Michael Clements trained Shadow, who was looming large on the outside with about 300m to run – BRUTUS, under a strong ride from Hakim, fought back however, staved off the challenge and went to the line winning by a long neck.

 Click HERE to see the race replay

 BRUTUS – Wins in Singapore 18th September 2021

Trainer, Mark Walker, who produced 3 winners on the day and has now gone to a clear lead in the Singapore Trainers Premiership expressed some relief after the race  “On paper, this horse looked a moral to win this race, but he had a tricky draw and he does prefer to be ridden quietly – however we decided to have a throw at the stumps and go forward – that plan was executed perfectly by Hakim, who is riding like a man possessed and we got the job done – well done to John Galvin and his Fortuna Team – they are a major influence in the Te Akau Singapore Stable, they have had 14 wins in Singapore in 2021 and deserve every success they get.”

Fortuna Director, John  Galvin, watching from his home in New Zealand, was a happy man post race ”That was a very satisfying result – Brutus very rarely runs a bad race, but just has not had a lot of luck in recent starts – today the birdie was on his shoulder and aided by a top ride from Hakim. Big kudos to Trainer, Mark Walker and his team, Mark is a trainer at the top of his game and we are having a great season together.”

Brutus (Rubick-Harvest Queen) was acquired by John Galvin at the May 2019 Inglis Digital Sale for A$45,000 and he has now won approximately S$148,000 for his 46 member strong ownership group, the Fortuna Brutus Syndicate, a syndicate with Members from New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK