Sydney jockey Tommy Berry has claimed back to back wins aboard Dan Excel in the $3 million Singapore Airlines Gold Cup at Kranji.
Trained in Hong King by John Moore, Dan Excel led all the way to beat Military Attack in Singapore’s richest race on Sunday and become the first horse to win the Cup twice since its inception in 2000.
Hong Kong also claimed the KrisFlyer Sprint with the Paul O’Sullivan-trained Aerovelocity winning for Zac Purton.
Dan Excel was sent to Australia last year with the Cox Plate his target but that was derailed by a viral throat infection.
“It was a great effort to bring him back to this level especially after his throat operation in Sydney,” Moore said.
“We backed him off and when I spoke to the vets, they were confident he would be back, and I would say he was in even better condition than last year.”
Berry agreed, although he admitted it was not his intention to lead.
“I didn’t expect to lead,” Berry told the Singapore Turf Club.
“He can be a bit keen, but I had the Japanese horse (Meiner Frost) on my outside and I know they normally go from a long way out, but he was nice enough to leave me alone.
“I knew I would not get a better run and I was like waiting on the count for a horse to run me down. When the Japanese horse came to put a bit of pressure at the home turn, I let him go and he went full speed ahead.”
Aerovelocity’s win gave him a second victory in the Global Sprint Series and O’Sullivan said he would talk to owner Daniel Yeung as to where to go next.
“We will sit down with Daniel who owns him. He is up for the bonus now, so I think we will prioritise that, but we will let the dust settle and talk to Daniel,” O’Sullivan said.
“It is more a relief than a thrill to win as we are a long way from home.
“It was not really the plan to lead, but he has got very good gate speed. We did not know what to expect from the local horses here.
“Zac knows him very well but I thought he was sitting up a little long on him.”
Aerovelocity beat Emperor Max with dual KrisFlyer winner Lucky Nine third after a luckless run.
