Four-year-old gavelhouse graduate Star Knight produced an eye-catching all-the-way victory from a wide barrier in his Singapore debut over 1150m on Saturday night.
An $11,000 buy in August, he raced as Le Brassus in
New Zealand and was sold by his owner and breeder John
Clydesdale who was looking to reduce the number of horses he had in training.
In New Zealand he raced from the stable of Mark Brooks for a win over 1150m and a placing on debut over 1200m and was in work during the auction.
He has since joined the stable of Letitia Dragon in Singapore who gave him two 1000m trials in which he placed in both before his four-length victory ahead of Swiss Ace son Ocean Master in Saturday's meeting on the polytrack.
"This horse has been trialling very well (second and third at two of them). I expected a good run today," said Dragon in the Singapore Turf Club media release.
That one result at Class 4 level has already returned his owner, Joel Tan's Five Two Dynasty Racing Stable three times his purchase price with plenty more in store judging by the dominance of his performance.
Jockey John Sundradas said he had not really set out to take up the running from the wide barrier, but after Star Knight began so smartly, there was only one way to ride him.
"He's a very forward sort of horse. He was very sharp in his trials," he commented.
"Actually, he doesn't have to lead. I could have sat second or third, but he jumped so well from his wide barrier that there wasn't much point to drag him back.
"He controlled the race very well and I was confident then he would be hard to beat. In the straight, he was just waiting for somebody."
A four-year-old son of Bullbars, Star Knight is out of the eight time winning Generous mare Blancpain while his third dam is the Gr.1 New Zealand Cup winner Soundoration (Sound Reason).
Tan also has fellow gavelhouse.com graduate Star Fiftytwo, who is yet to make his debut for his stable.
Star Knight's victory followed on from fellow gavelhouse.com graduate Red Riding Wood'swin in the Class 5 over 1600m on the polytrack at Kranji on Friday night.
Red Riding Wood was a $25,000 purchase as an unraced two-year-old from the inaugural gavelhouse.com online auction in April 2016 from owner-breeder Mike Griffin. Raced by Joe Giovanni and trained by Saimee Jumat, the now five-year-old son of Redwood has won four and placed a further five times from 41 starts for approximately NZ$125,400 in prize-money to date.
The latest gavelhouse.com New Zealand auction features 53 Lots and is set to close from 7pm tonight, Monday 4 March. Meanwhile off the back of another successful gavelhouse.com Australia auction with a top price of $40,500, entries are due online at 7pm today.
