30 July 2009
A close battle has emerged for the honour of being the leading New Zealand-based sire on the Singapore general sires’ premiership this year.
With 7 months of the calendar-based Singapore racing season completed there is less than $70,000 separating Stravinsky and Align on the sires’ table.
Stravinsky, who is returning to Cambridge Stud this year, has progeny earnings of S$669,871 to date this year compared with the Highview-based sire Align’s total of S$602,478.
The two sires have been stride for stride in recent weeks in Singapore and it will be intriguing to monitor their progess for the remainder of the year in such an important market for the New Zealand thoroughbred in terms of the sale of yearlings, trials winners and tried racehorses.
Stravinksy’s leading performer has been Noble Manor while for Align the front-runner has been the Lauire Laxon-trained Waipapa.
Laxon is a big fan of the stock of Align and has enjoyed plenty of success with them in Singapore in the past few seasons.
In particular Waipapa has been a headline act for Laxon who believes the best is yet to come from the promising three-year-old.
“He has plenty of scope about him and will only get better with age,” Laxon said.
“He is just starting to put it altogether now,” said Laxon. “He came here from New Zealand with just the one start under him for a second and he’s done a very good job . His efforts in the Singapore Three-Year-Old challenge showed he is right up to the top company.”
Waipapa has finished in the first three runners home in 11 of his 13 career starts to date and has three wins in Singapore to his credit as well as two third placings in the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge in his most recent outings this month.
The other leading NZ-based sires trailing Align in Singapore this year include O’Reilly, Van Nistelrooy and Viking Ruler.
Align stands at Highview Stud in 2009 at a fee of $7000 plus gst.
Further information see the Align webpage
