Stenmark On The Mark Again

M.Lee Reports:

Trainer Logan's talented 4YO puts his back problems behind with another facile success

Not known as a totally reliable conveyance of late, Stenmark proved that his last-start win was no flash in the pan after he doubled the dose with a slashing win in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1,200m on Saturday.

The Medaglia d'Oro four-year-old is blessed with qualities, but he can be his own worst enemy at times.

At his two starts before his previous win, he refused to jump and took no part in the race and he then dumped jockey Oscar Chavez after an awkward start at the next run.

Unfazed by those quirks, trainer Donna Logan has shown the patience of Job to bring the Te Akau Stable-owned gelding to heel.

She had homed in on the dorsal area as the root cause of his recent failures.

“He's a horse who's always shown ability, but he's been tardy out of the gates like today,” said the Kiwi horsewoman.

“He had back problems and we've done a lot of massaging and acupuncture with him, thanks to our massage expert, Mr Sunday.

“That has strengthened up his back a lot. It's taken a lot of hard work. But, hopefully, we have got over the top of his problems now.”

Logan also praised her apprentice jockey, Hakim Kamaruddin, for thinking on his feet to quickly come up with the perfect recovery plot after Stenmark did not jump on terms with his 10 rivals.

“Hakim got him going and found the right spot for him,” she said.

“The pace was very fast and he got over the top of them in the end.”

The Malaysian rider, indeed, showed why he was crowned last season's dual Singapore champion (jockey and apprentice) with a cool ride beyond his years.

Barely 200m into the race, Stenmark had already sliced through the backend of the field to slot snugly into fifth behind the leading quartet.

The question still remained if he had spent too much petrol early, more so when leader Webster was giving the impression he could hold sway up front and give Daniel Meagher's apprentice jockey, Fahmi Rosman, a fairytale start to his budding career.

But Stenmark's better finish, coupled with Hakim's greater experience and superior riding skills, laid down the law in the last 100m.

Stenmark bolted in by just under four lengths from Webster.

Eight Ball (Wong Chin Chuen) stuck on for third, half a length away.

The winning time was was 1min 9.54sec for the 1,200m on the Long Course B.

“There are more places for him to go. He's just starting to pick up on his form,” said Logan.

“He will go up to Class 3 now and we may have a look at a race (1,400m) on June 26, but we have to see how he pulls up.”

Logan later brought up a double with Our Secret Weapon (apprentice jockey Fadzli Yusoff) in the $30,000 Class 5 race over the Polytrack 1,000m.

On 24 winners, Kranji's only woman trainer has closed the gap on leader Tim Fitzsimmons. She is down to just five winners behind.

Logan was widely tipped as a force to be reckoned with this year, after the bulk of Mark Walker's powerful string - mostly from the Fortuna NZ Stable and Te Akau Stable - moved to her yard after the four-time Singapore champion trainer returned to New Zealand earlier this year.

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