What a Trooper

The David Ellis purchased, Mark Walker trained combination was at its very best again at Kranji on Friday night as Stormtrooper romped home (for a stable quinella with Falcon) after two very good seconds at his first two Singapore starts - the Singapore Turf Club reports:

Storm Trooper went one better at his third try to score his maiden win in the $65,000 Initiation race over 1400m on Friday night.

The Mark Walker-trained Tavistock three-year-old had already shown some promise at his first two outings, both over 1200m when he ran on for second on both occasions.

One of the best beginners, Storm Trooper saw himself landing in front with none of his 11 rivals looking too keen to take up the leading role. As soon as he crossed to the fence, jockey Manoel Nunes immediately threw out the anchors, stacking up the speed.

Storm Trooper (Manoel Nunes) scores an all-the-way win in Race 2 on Friday night.

Numero Uno (Benny Woodworth) came eye-balling Storm Trooper from the halfway mark, but he did not take any initiative to press forward either. Nunes must have been chuckling to himself with his mount enjoying a hassle-free stroll upfront and lots of residual energy left in the tank.

The race looked all parcelled up when Nunes gave him his head, though he had an inclination to hang out under pressure. Storm Trooper kept on well, only for stablemate Falcon (Michael Rodd) to bridge the gap late, cutting down the margin to 1 ¾ lengths in the end.

The vastly-improved Numero Uno just missed out on the runner-up spot by a nose. Starting as the even-money favourite, Storm Trooper ran the 1400m on the Short Course in a very slow 1min 25.32secs, clearly as a result of the crawling pace in the early stages.

Walker predicted a handy future for that new acquisition of the successful Te Akau Racing Stable of David Ellis.

“He's a very lovely horse. Those Tavistocks are doing very well, there is another one by the same sire who will start as the favourite for the New Zealand Derby tomorrow,” said the Kiwi trainer, referring to the Donna Logan-trained Volkstok'n'Barrell.

“David Ellis bought him for NZ70,000 at the Karaka sale. He's still very green but he will become even better once he matures and the penny drops.”

Nunes said the original plan of taking a sit flew out the window the moment he realised a cat-and-mouse affair was afoot.

“Nobody wanted to go. The plan was to sit but when they all took a sit, I had no other choice but to go forward,” said the Brazilian jockey.

“When he got to the front, he got lost as he's still a baby, but I was able to save him up as he was going over 1400m for the first time. I did use him a little in the early stages to get across, but he had a soft lead in front and that helped. He will get better over more ground with more experience under the belt.”

Below is Storm Trooper or "Zippy" as we know him in his paddock before heading to join our Singapore team ...