A former Argentine Derby winner will make his racing debut in Singapore on Sunday.

Storm Chispazo, who landed the Grade 1 Gran Premio Nacional (2500m) on dirt at Palermo last November when trained by Alfredo Dassie, will line up for trainer Basil Marcus in the Open Benchmark 83 race over 1600m on turf, testing his wares in a small but select six-horse field that includes the likes of Volpista, Tobias and Risky Business.

The Argentinian-bred four-year-old entire by Storm Cat sire Bernstein earned such rave reviews for his three wins from five starts in his home land, including a crushing 12-length win in a 2000m race at San Isidro last October before his upset last-to-first victory in the Derby, that it did not take long before he was swooped up by overseas interests.

A month after the Derby win, he had arrived in the Dubai yard of South African trainer Herman Brown of Singapore Airlines International Cup winner Jay Peg fame, with the rich pickings of the 2010 Dubai World Cup carnival in mind, especially the UAE Derby (1900m) on the all-weather track at the new Meydan Racecourse in March.

Things did not quite pan out for the South American-bred at his new Middle-East hunting ground as Storm Chispazo finished out of the placings in only two outings – an eighth to Musir in a Group 3 race over 1600m on February 18 and a 12th to Mendip in a Listed race over 1900m carrying the steadier of 62kg on March 4.

Brown then decided to send Storm Chispazo to Singapore to fellow South African trainer Marcus. The two friends are no stranger to such reciprocal arrangements as Marcus himself prepared Jay Peg before he was transferred to Brown for his Dubai campaign, which also included his successful SIA Cup tilt in 2008.

At his only barrier trial (August 26) at Kranji, Storm Chispazo (Sean Cormack) came from the rear to finish over the top of his rivals for a ¾ length-win from Ace Allotroped (Danny Beasley).

“I’m very happy with his progress so far,” said Marcus. “He did very well in his trial, but I think it will still take a few races to get him into top form.

“The mile first-up should be perfect for him. He can only benefit from that first run and continue to progress from there.

“As you know, I do take time with my horses. No doubt he’s an international horse with some credentials but I’ll take him step by step.

“If all goes well, ultimately we’d like to set him for the Gold Cup but we’ll have to see how things work out here.”

The time-honoured $1.35 million Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup (2200m) is a handicap race that will be run on November 14.

Last year, Marcus was on hand to watch one of his former gallopers in South Africa, Desert Links – then prepared by caretaker trainer David Hill – run a meritorious third to El Dorado in the Gold Cup.

Desert Links, a South African-bred by Kahal, has not faced the starter since, but is slowly getting back into shape following a tendon operation.

“He’s coming back and should be able to race again,” said the former top jockey, who saddled the gelding to one of his young training career highlights in the Canon Gold Cup (3200m) in South Africa in 2008.

“But this year’s Singapore Gold Cup is definitely out of question. Hopefully we’ll see the best of him next year.”

Marcus, who has registered two wins with Flying West since he relocated to Singapore from Cape Town early this year, regards the son of Flying Spur as one of the best horses in his 41-horse strong yard.

“He’s been our flagbearer so far. With two wins and two placings from four starts, he’s been extremely consistent for us,” said Marcus.

“I’m very happy with the way things are running in my first season here. To finish among the first four 14 times from 30 runners goes to show our work is producing results.

“I don’t like rushing my horses. Most of them are young horses, unraced two-year-olds and three-year-olds that will be much better next year or the year after.

“You must have noticed we haven’t raced a lot of horses lately. Though a few of the young horses were maturing, we’ve also gelded some of them as they were getting quite coltish and that probably slowed down the process as we don’t have that many older horses to go with.

“I’m still looking to buy more horses. Being in Singapore now, the Australian and New Zealand markets are more attractive not only in terms of their nice quality young horses but also the freight which is cheaper than importing horses from South Africa.

“Quarantine measures for South African horses are also more complicated. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t bring one over if I find a nice one.”

Such a horse would not be hailing from his own “feeder barn”, though. Marcus, who originally kept his Cape Town stables running under the care of his son Adam, has decided to pull the shutters on his racing business in his homeland last July.

”It’s closed down now. We had our last runners on (Vodacom Durban) July day (July 31) and we left on a winning note as one of them Saluki won a Group 3 race on that day,” said Marcus who used to have about 120 horses in training in Cape Town.

“The original intention was to let the South African arm run for a while and see how it goes, but we’ve finally decided to focus solely on our Singapore operation.

“Adam had a fantastic season in Durban saddling nine winners for our trainer Michael de Beer before he came here. Besides Saluki, they also won a Listed race with Tassie Belle who also ran second in a Group 1 race.”

“Most of them are owned by Mrs Bridget Oppenheimer who has sent them to other trainers after Michael decided to stop training as well.”