Like a rocket

Trainer Patrick Shaw, who said he’d like to take on our Black Caviar with his Singapore champion Rocket Man to see if the Melbourne mare really was the world’s best sprinter and not just a stop-at-home champion, has his sprinter going like a rocket.

Rocket Man, being prepared for the $2 million Golden Shaheen (1200m) on the artificial Tapeta track on World Cup night at Meydan in Dubai on March 26, romped home on the Polytrack at Kranji, Singapore in the $125,000 RDA Cup (1200m) yesterday.

Starting at $5.30 favourite (for a $5 investment, odds of about 1-17 “in the old” – Black Caviar, at this stage is about 1-3 to win the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington on Saturday), Rocket Man won by almost six lengths from Capablanca with Noble Manor two lengths away third, cruising home in 1 min 10.70 secs.

Shaw said Rocket Man would leave for Dubai on March 19 in a bid to go one better than last year’s (probably unlucky) second to American Kinsale King.

Rocket Man (b g 5, Viscount-Macrosa (NZ), by Mr McGinty (NZ)) is unbeaten in 12 starts against domestic opponents in Singapore, and he dead-heated in a Group 2 in Hong Kong last year. His four defeats (all close-up seconds) have been at international Group 1 level.

The unbeaten Black Caviar will be going for her 10th win (third at Group 1) when she races as a long odds-on favourite in the $1 million Group 1 Newmarket. The race pencilled in as the first possible clash between Black Caviar (b m 4, Bel Esprit-Helsinge, by Desert Sun (GB)) and Rocket Man will be the Patinack Farm Classic (1200m) at Flemington during the Melbourne Cup carnival in November.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s two top jockeys, Australian Vlad Duric and Brazilian Joao Moreira have begun careless riding suspensions – Duric (25 wins) will miss five meetings and return on March 27; Moreira, out for six meetings, will be back on April 1.

In Hong Kong, Beauty Flash, another preparing for Dubai, yesterday made it a hat-trick of Group 1s when he won the $HK6 million (about $760,000 ) Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup  (1400m).

Melbourne Cup winner Gerald Mosse (Americain, 2010) rode Beauty Flash and will have the mount in the $5 million Group 1 Dubai Duty Free (1777m), a leg of the Asian Mile Series, at Meydan.

The Tony Cruz-trained Beauty Flash (ch g 5, Golan (IRE)-Wychwood Rose (NZ), by Volksraad (NZ)) beat Sunny King (Olivier Doleuze) and hot favourite Lucky Nine (Brett Prebble), prompting Mosse to say: “He’s a superstar.”

Prebble, beaten on another well-fancied horse at the weekend – Playing God in the $750,000 Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday – didn’t come away empty-handed from the Sha Tin meeting. He had a double, including the heavily backed Familists ($18 in to $8.50), in the last – Familists (b or br g 4, Hussonet (USA)-Sunday Valentine, by Sunday Silence (USA)), a $1.2 million yearling, had two wins as Hus Der Lieften in Sydney when trained by Gerald Ryan.

Melbourne Cup winning trainer David Hall (Makybe Diva, 2003) trains Familists, who has won one from four in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s top jockey Douglas Whyte also had a Sha Tin double (Goodview Successor and Rich Unicorn) after a “southern hemisphere Saturday”. At Ellerslie in New Zealand he was unplaced on Wisecrack behind Jimmy Choux in the Group 1 New Zealand Derby (2400m), but had a consolation win on Treasure Hunter in a support 2100m race.

Whyte leads Prebble 57-42 in the jockeys’ premiership.

Jimmy Choux (b c 3, Thorn Park-Cierzo (NZ), by Centaine) is expected to start in the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap (1600m) at Randwick next month. Trained by John Bary, Jimmy Choux has won nine of 16, including two Group 1s, three Group 2s and two Group 3s, ridden in all by Jonathan Riddell, who combines flat and jumps riding.