Talented Mauritian jockey Nooresh Juglall swept the outright riding honours at Kranji on Friday night when he booted home a memorable five-timer, the first of his brilliant young career.

A former two-time South African champion apprentice jockey, Juglall had three four-timers under the belt in the Rainbow Nation and a fourth one chalked up in Singapore (War Time, Emperor’s Banquet, Peace No War and Gilt Lad) at his first season in 2014.

Juglall, who just turned 25 last Friday, was already tickled pink he had equalled his record with the Patrick Shaw-trained Rafaello in the $100,000 Open Benchmark 97 race over 1200m, but with last-start winner and lightweight chance Queen Roulette ($36) in the penultimate event, the $75,000 Novice race over 1200m, he had a sneaky suspicion he might well be heading towards a personal best of five wins.

Settled in rear division, the home-bred daughter of Ruwi had “High Five” written all over her when she cruised around the pack at the top of the straight to hit the front.

Knight Chen Bay (Michael Rodd) who led on a piece of cotton from the start looked like he still had not tapped into his reserve tank yet when he rallied again on the rails while impressive last-start winner and $11 favourite Paperback Trooper (Danny Beasley) was also sneaking his way around in search of a repeat feat.

But they were left rooted to the spot when Queen Roulette flicked on the afterburners with a pulsating acceleration and had the race shot to pieces in no time, darting off to a 2 ¼-length win from Knight Chen Bay with Super Hero (Mark Ewe) third another neck away. The winning time was 1min 10.72secs for the 1200m on the Long Course.

Juglall, who had wife Chaaya, sister-in-law Anusha and her husband Avi Bundhoo on hand to watch the five-star performance, struggled to conceal his emotion after he jumped off Queen Roulette.

“I knew I had a decent book of rides tonight and I was expecting at least one or two winners, but five was beyond my wildest dreams,” said Juglall.

“A big thank you to Pat and (assistant-trainer) Ricardo (Le Grange) as they gave me four of the five wins and also Leslie Khoo for the last win (Queen Roulette).

“It’s great I was also part of Pat’s milestone of 800 winners (see other report). Congratulations to him and long may he continue like that.”

Juglall was hard pressed to single out the best win among his quintet made up of Mighty Kenny, Mighty Emperor, Big Brother, Rafaello and Queen Roulette, but said Rafaello was by far his favourite horse.

“Rafaello has now won six times and I was aboard at each one of them. He’s a very genuine horse,” he said.

“Tonight, he was up in class, but he’s been working very well and I gave him a good chance. He couldn’t get a run in the straight, I waited a bit but once he put his big heart in, he won a very gutsy race.

“His light weight was a big factor and he won a decent race. The 1400m will suit him even better.”

Shaw agreed that the Fred Crabbia-owned Oratorio four-year-old had a bright future lying ahead although the yard had to treat him with pincers after a recent setback.

“It’s one of these nights when everything goes well,” said the South African who was saddling his fourth winner of the night and his 801st overall (Big Brother brought up the milestone one race earlier – see other report).

“This horse came here at a late stage and had a bit of a rushed preparation in the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge. He also bled after his second-last win and that’s why we had to worry about that as well.

“But he’s shown tonight he could measure against the better sprinters even though he was underscale, and I think he can go up to 1400m and even the mile one day.”

Well-backed at $25, Rafaello came from his rearward spot to extend beautifully under Juglall’s urgings to sweep past favourite Wimbledon (Corey Brown) at the 200m to go and record a three-quarter length victory from the fast-finishing Kam’s Comet (Manoel Nunes). Wimbledon had to settle for third place another quarter-length away. The winning time was 1min 10.13secs for the 1200m on the Long Course.

With that sixth success in only 15 outings, Rafaello has now brought his stakes earnings past the $310,000 mark for Crabbia.

Juglall also had words of praise for his own milestone provider, Queen Roulette, whom he was riding for the first time.

“She was always travelling so well at the back. Once the leaders came back to her, she was in the firing line and won a very nice race,” said Juglall who has also struck quite a handy amount of winners for Khoo in his three seasons in Singapore.

“I’m glad I was able to achieve this record in front of my relatives from Mauritius, my sister-in-law Anusha and her husband Avi before they fly back next week. They have brought me luck!”

As usual, the jocular Khoo had a funny twist in the tale to Juglall’s blitz which he capped with the Teng Kian Beng-owned filly.

“It was quite a strong field, but I was actually quite confident she would run well with the lightweight,” said the Singaporean trainer.

“My only worry was Juglall had already won four! I was like ‘oh no, I will jinx him with Queen Roulette’, but hey, he was on fire tonight and I’m glad he got his five winners with her.”

Queen Roulette has now taken her record to two wins and one second from six starts for stakes earnings fast approaching the $100,000 mark.

Juglall had a chance to even stretch the fairytale run further as he had one last bullet left in the Lucky Last, longshot Silver Power for trainer Alvin Kuah.

With such a rich vein of form that brought shades of Joao Moreira's fabulous eight from eight on that historic September 6, 2013, punters jumped on board with Silver Power's odds slashed into $66 before the off, but it was to be no six-timer, as although Silver Power loomed up at the top of the straight, he could only muster a sixth place to Power Lin (Troy See) in the $90,000 Class 4 race over 1200m. 

Michael Lee

Image: 
Nooresh Juglall celebrates with his family (from left to right) sister-in-law Anusha Bundhoo, wife
Chaaya and Anusha's husband Avi Bundhoo