Fans of Vlad Duric and racegoers in general will be shocked and sad to learn that they won’t see the champion jockey ride at Kranji for the remaining season.
Following yet another last-minute withdrawal from his riding engagements last week, the four-time Singapore champion jockey has decided to take a break from racing until the end of the Singapore racing season.
The Australian has been battling a series of health setbacks this year, hence the stop-and-start season that he has had.
The latest case of forfeited rides because of illness occurred on Saturday when he was actually looking forward to a riding comeback from one month on the sidelines for kidney issues.
Unfortunately, the kidneys acted up again. A grim realisation dawned on the 44-year-old hoop that his body was telling him he could not stop riding for just one meeting this time.
Duric had to forgo his book of five rides on Saturday, but also dropped the bombshell that his 2021 season was all but over.
"I've been trying to get my body right but I've realised I'm not able to start riding just yet. So I need to make sure I get my body right before I make a decision going forward," he said.
"I had to make a call at some point after I've had a lot of ongoing health concerns in the last six months."
Besides the kidneys, Duric has this year been plagued by a throat lump and a thumb injury, compounded further by his constant wasting to shed weight in hot and humid Singapore.
Duric has, however, not hung up his saddle yet, saying he would take stock on his condition by year end.
"I've reapplied for a licence next year. I'm booked to fly back to Melbourne in December, I'll then reassess my future," he said.
After being up with the pace early and looking the part for his title defence bid, Duric has gradually slid down to fourth (on 28 winners) as a result of his prolonged absences, with hopes of a fifth consecutive title ebbing away with each passing meeting – and now dashed for good.
Prosperous Return rang up his 28th and last winner on August 22 to bring his total Kranji tally to 617 winners (first winner was Master Key for Len Treloar on April 10, 2009), with roughly a third of them (214 winners) having come at a first stint from 2009 to 2011, during which time he finished runner-up to the untouchable Joao Moreira twice (2010 and 2011).
The Caulfield Cup-winning jockey (Master O'Reilly in 2007) returned to Kranji in 2016 and hasn't looked back since. Besides the four champion jockey gongs, he scooped up multiple feature races (30 all-up) including 10 at Group 1 level to add to the two he snared at his first stay in 2011 – Gingerbread Man in the Singapore Guineas and Always Certain in the Raffles Cup.
The career highlight has to be the 2020 Group 1 Singapore Derby aboard Top Knight with whom he notched his last Group 1 success at Kranji one month later on October 31, 2020 in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, one of three majors (other two are the Lion City Cup and Singapore Guineas) he was the most successful in – three of them.
The only big race that eluded him is the Singapore Gold Cup, the closest he came being interestingly at his first season in 2009 with a second place on Given Vision, 1 ½-length off the winner El Dorado.
