Fortuna Three year old Gelding MAJOR TOM could not have been more impressive in breaking through for his first Singapore at his fourth start. By Darci Brahma out of the Group Two NZ winning mare, Spin N Grin, MAJOR TOM was beautifully handled with a class ride from Rizuan Shafiq. Already knocking on the door for a while, the Darci Brahma three-year-old left his 11 rivals reeling when a saloon passage presented itself at the top of the straight. Lengthening up under Shafiq Rizuan’s urgings, Major Tom opened up to a commanding break and by the 200m was well clear as he went on to hit the line 1 ¾-length clear of the fast-finishing newcomer Chalaza (Danny Beasley) with Mr Exchequer (Matthew Kellady) boxing on well for third place another 2 ¼ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 22.86secs for the 1400m on the Short Course.
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“He’s a promising horse who has kept improving with every run, especially when he will get over a mile,” said the 2015 Singapore champion trainer, Mark Walker. “He is well above average, and I will now run him in a Novice race over 1400m. The Three-Year-Old series is something I have in mind for him, but he will skip the first Leg and go for the second Leg instead.”
Walker was referring to the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge which kicks off with the Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1200m) on March 26 followed by the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) on April 14 and the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) on May 14.
Major Tom was acquired by Fortuna Director John Galvin in November 2015 for $80,000 in a private sale deal. He is owned and raced by the Fortuna Major Tom Syndicate, an ownership group of 31 people. ” I couldn’t be happier for this group of owners,” said John Galvin, “five of them are also in the Melody Belle Syndicate – she recently won NZ’s richest horse race, the Karaka Million, a number of the others are long term Fortuna stalwarts and we have a handful of newer clients in there as well.”