Te Akau: Brothers Brilliant

Te Akau is on fire with two black type winners in New Zealand on Saturday and four Singapore winners over the Easter weekend.  The latest Singapore winner was OM, coincidentally Better Than Ever's half brother - as the Singapore Turf Club reports:

Both the better known and lesser known halves of New Zealand mare Songfest's pair of progeny found the line a day apart in two different parts of the world this weekend.

After owner Tang Weng Fei relocated former Singapore champion miler and 16-time Kranji winner Better Than Ever to his country of birth at the end of last year, the move finally reaped rewards at the fifth start when the French Deputy six-year-old recorded a fighting win in the Group 2 Awapuni Gold Cup (2000m) on Saturday. Now prepared by Matamata trainer Jason Bridgman, the former Laurie Laxon-trained gelding had not finished worse than fourth at his previous four starts at his new hunting ground, all at Group level, but was right on target under jockey Hayden Tinsley in the Manawatu feature.

By coincidence, Better Than Ever's half-brother OM, who predictably began his Singapore career for trainer Mark Walker and owner Sir Owen Glenn with a great deal of hype, also made his breakthrough the next day to finally step out of his more famous sibling's big shadow.

OM (Joao Moreira) was impressive at his maiden success at Kranji on Sunday.

OM, who is by leading New Zealand sire Darci Brahma, has always been the subject of heavy support at his four previous starts, and though he never disgraced himself, was not quite in the same league as Better Than Ever, whose explosive turn of foot saw him take all before him at Kranji, reeling off 12 wins in a row before first tasting defeat in the 2010 Singapore Gold Cup.

But a tinkering with his headgear and a smart piece of riding from leading jockey Joao Moreira finally paid off for OM, who gave his nine rivals no chance in the $65,000 Forest Gold 2005 Restricted Maiden Division 1 race (1400m).

Racing without blinkers again, after donning them at his last two runs, OM ($8) was dropped to the rear by Moreira before improving around the field from the 800m. After making the early running, the likes of Thrust (Steven King), Sacred Crown (Manoel Nunes) and Domenico (Barend Vorster) had no answer to OM's decisive burst on the outside, but the wayward three-year-old started to lay in under pressure.

Danger Zone (Alan Munro) and Excusez Moi (Zuriman Zulkifli) ran on strongly, but OM was already three lengths clear as he went on to pick up top honours for the first time, running the 1400m journey on the Long Course in 1min 23.65secs.

Walker was stoked OM had been able to get off the mark, especially as he was the first horse he trained for his prominent owner, Sir Owen, a famous New Zealand businessman and philanthropist, who has among others donated NZ$1 million to his country's earthquake funds in 2011.

“This is the first horse I train for Sir Owen Glenn, who owns horses back home and in Australia. It's a big honour for me to finally train a winner for him,” said Walker.

“The two runs with the blinkers on were more to teach him to run as he's quite green. As you could see today, he was laying in badly in the home straight. He's still immature and I will now give him a break at the resting stalls. He will keep getting better with age.”

Moreira said OM was too keen with the blinkers on and was less unsettled on Sunday, though still inclined to doing “silly things”.

“He was too keen with the blinkers on at his last two races. That probably cost him the race as he also missed the jump a few times. He's still immature and is doing many silly things in his races like he throws his head around a lot. He was hanging in badly. I tried to hold him to the outside as much as I could, but once he got a clear run, he just wanted to race close to the fence.”