Brandenburg Fights To Win for new Boss
IPOH Brandenburg battled to victory in the Class 4A 1,200m sprint in Ipoh on March 15 to give trainer Stephen Cook his first success with the gelding in three runs.
The fighting win along the rails in the RM35,500 (S$10,600) race also slotted in as the middle pin of a rare treble for the popular Australian conditioner.
The 63-year-old, who saddled seven runners for the day, also captured the opening event with Fight To Win (Wong Kam Chong), and capped his good day at the office with Silent Boss (Nik Shahronnizam) in the last event of the nine-race programme.
Thanks to the prolific haul, Cook has leapfrogged to second place on the Ipoh trainer's log on five wins, two behind the leader Kevin Coetzee.
Overall on the Malaysian premiership, he sits mid-table, still a fair way off the leader Richard Lines (Kuala Lumpur) on 12 wins.
At $14 for a win on the Singapore Pools tote, Brandenburg was clearly the one in the calculations among his trio of victors.
A three-year-old by Heroic Valour, Fight To Win, who never ran a place in 10 previous starts, was unsighted in the market at $126.
Silent Boss, a 10-year-old veteran by Street Boss, went off at $50 to bring up his 14th win, but the first in more than a year.
Despite Brandenburg's breakthrough under his tutelage, Cook, who has 19 horses on his books, said he might have found his mark.
"After a third, then a second, the win was a natural progression," said Cook who has trained in Malaysia since 2002.
"It was a tough win and I don't think he (Brandenburg) is going to win three in a row again."
Cook was referring to Brandenburg's hat-trick of wins late in 2024 before he took over the horse's training.
Ridden by Wong, Brandenburg was the first to break under the pouring rain, together with Kuala Lumpur visitor You Think So (Azizi Azhari), who delayed the start considerably when he entered the stall and backed out on several occasions.
But You Think So still found an abundance of energy to lead from Brandenburg and Peaky Blinder (Harmeet Singh Gill) on settling down.
The Parama Sivan Veerapen-trained You Think So led into the straight with his stablemate Apis (Jackie Chuah) moving up to second on the outside of Peaky Blinder. Brandenburg was just next on their inside.
You Think So held on to his lead until well past the 100m mark when Brandenburg charged home to beat him by a neck. After racing three wide early, Apis did well to finish third.
"I was worried about taking the inside run (after the rain) but I could not take the horse to the outside because a couple of horses were already there," said Wong.
"Nevertheless, he fought on gamely. It was a tough battle."
It would appear that Brandenburg just loves the Ipoh track.
Unplaced in one outing in Singapore, the Better Than Ready entire was sent over to Sharee Hamilton in Kuala Lumpur and failed to show up in three starts there before he landed at Peter Lee's yard in Ipoh.
Brandenburg won his first start for Lee and, after just one more run (finishing third) for the veteran trainer, the horse was on the move again, this time to Tan Eng Peow at Sungai Besi.
Brandenburg ran second first-up for Tan, but after three more starts at his home track, he was sent to Ipoh to race and promptly won.
Much later, Brandenburg won in Class 5 on his home track, then defied a promotion to win twice in Class 4 in consecutive weeks in Ipoh, all in November.
Despite his treble and a subsequent third placing, Brandenburg was transferred to Ipoh again, this time to Cook's yard.
The latest success brought his record to six wins in 21 starts.
The newly relocated trainer Richard Lim was also toasting to his success at Ipoh that day, but with a different spin.
Salamence provided the former Kranji-based handler his first win at his very first raid on his hometown's racecourse.
Though Lim was born in Butterworth in Penang, the 43-year-old former jockey was brought up in Ipoh, albeit his stable of 43 horses are in Kuala Lumpur, like his elder brother Wayne.
Sent out as the even-money favourite in the RM25,000 Class 5A race (1,100m) at his Malaysian debut, Salamence, a seven-time winner at Kranji (five for Daniel Meagher), won from start to finish under jockey Lim Shung Uai.
"I am very happy to win my first race in Ipoh," said Lim. TURFONLINE
