One year ago, Super Salute fired up the new and final Singapore season in 2024 with a brilliant win in the Group 3 New Year Cup (1,200m).
While racing was already doomed in the Lion City, the gelding's ninth win helped set aside the gloom, at least, for a short while. Former jockey Richard Lim - Super Salute's second trainer after his more successful first handler Jason Lim (saddled him to his other seven wins, including a Group 2 and another Group 3) was disqualified for 18 months in July 2023 - was picking up his first silverware in his young training career.
Owner Alan John could afford to dream big with the dozen feature races left to snare in the last 10 months before it was curtains. Sure his arch-rival Golden Monkey and arch-nemesis Lim's Kosciuszko would be formidable foes, but the son of I Am Invincible could hold his own, especially with five-time Singapore champion jockey Manoel Nunes on his back. Unfortunately, it all went pear-shaped from there.
Three defeats, all at Group level, ensued. The latest, a drubbing from Lim's Kosciuszko in the Group 1 Kranji Mile on May 18 was to be his last Singapore bow.
Eight months on, Super Salute will pop back up in a RM62,000 (S$18,800) Supreme A (1,200m) in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 12 under a new trainer, Parama Sivan Veerapen, but still in John's blue silks.
This story is from the January 10, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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This story is from the January 10, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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