Siam Blue Vanda (NZ) (Echoes of Heaven) flung his way into the black books with a pulsating debut win in the $85,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1100m on Sunday at Kranji in Singapore.
Michael Clements’ assistant-trainer Michael White said the three-year-old did show some positive signs on the training tracks, but still thought he might need the run first-up, especially with a stablemate and fellow newcomer who was a lot more favoured to get off the mark on the back of his brilliant trial form - Golden Years (NZ) (Jimmy Choux).
Racing in the blue, red and white colours of the Pupetch Racing Stable, Siam Blue Vanda (Glen Boss) easily dispatched his stablemate, racing away to a 4 ¾-length win from Golden Years.
“He’s still quite green and physically still a bit light, but he’s a lovely horse around the stables,” White said.
“I thought Golden Years would be hard to beat but Siam Blue Vanda would still run a good race, but I was proven wrong. I’d like to be proven wrong more often.
“The quick tempo upfront played into his hands. He ran on very well and looks like a nice horse for the future, but we won’t rush him.
“But he is most definitely the sort who will get better over more ground.”
Clements is of course known for having prepared another son of New Zealand-based stallion Echoes Of Heaven. He prepared Countofmontecristo (NZ) who was Singapore’s Champion Three-Year-Old last year and the winner of in excess of S$1 million in prizemoney.
Siam Blue Vanda was purchased for $40,000 by Waterford Bloodstock from the draft of Mark and Lorraine Forbes’ Kiltannon Stables from the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale.
Kiltannon Stables also sold Countofmontecristo at the 2015 NZB Ready to Run Sale for $57,500 and the Cambridge-based vendors will again be well represented at 2018 sale.
The New Zealand Ready To Run Sale is the Southern Hemisphere’s leading horses in training sale, with graduates winning 17 Group One races and 117 stakes races in the past five years alone.
The 2018 Ready to Run Sale will take place at Karaka on November 21 and 22, while the breeze-ups will be conducted at Te Rapa on October 15 and 16.