Trainer Ricardo Le Grange derived plenty of personal satisfaction out of Renzo’s win in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m on Saturday.
From Day 1, the Argentinian-bred three-year-old by Orpen showed undeniable qualities with a decent debut third followed by an all-the-way win in a 1200m turf race for Restricted Maidens back in July.
But things have gone a little pear-shaped since. He ran nowhere at his next two starts in Novice company, albeit he had some excuses like a bungled start and a chequered run to explain the ordinary runs.
To compound matters further, feet issues also surfaced, but Le Grange has taken all these challenges head-on.
Thanks to a great dose of patience and teamwork, the corrective measures taken with the Fred Crabbia-owned galloper along with new gear and footwear finally paid off on Saturday.
"He's been quite a frustrating horse. He was very impressive at his second start when he won, but things did go wrong after that," said the South African handler.
"He reared up in the gates and ran last in a Polytrack race. We've also worked a lot on his feet, fitted him with special shoes, and here, I have to thank Singapore Turf Club farrier Yat (Sudirman) for the amazing job he's done.
"To be honest, Harry (A'Isisuhairi Kasim) has a lot to do with him. He works on him every morning.
"We discussed and we decided to have a crack at the blinkers, and it turned out to be a good call.
"It's very gratifying to see all the hard work come through, especially when you get a good opinion of a horse, who then has some issues, and then you get them back. It's a good feeling."
The icing on the cake was of course to see the horse named after one of Crabbia's grandsons bouncing back to the winner's enclosure.
Sooled to the front by A'Isisuhairi while mindful not to burn too much petrol, Renzo secured the lead rather easily, but got little peace in the midsections of the race, though.
Close attendance in the shape of Lim's Straight (Danny Beasley) eye-balling him from the halfway mark could have softened him up, but although, visually, it looked game over when Lim's Straight headed him upon cornering, A'Isisuhairi still had a lapful under him.
Once the Malaysian jockey went full bore, Renzo kicked clear of the chasing pack, immediately putting daylight in between. The fast-finishing Siam Royal Orchid (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) cut him back late to take second place two and one quarter lengths away with Lim's Straight holding on to third place another neck away.
Returning a payout of $93, Renzo ran the Polytrack 1200m in 1min 11.55secs and now boasts a promising record of two wins and one third from five starts for stakes earnings around the $75,000 mark for Crabbia.
"I'm always very happy to train another winner for Fred and Manuela," said Le Grange who has known the steel magnate from his early days as a fledgling assistant-trainer to Patrick Shaw back in South Africa all the way through to his Singapore stint with Rocket Man, the undisputed symbol of their success story.
"I hope this win will give the horse a lot of confidence back. It was quite a strong Class 4 race.
"With the light weight and the good barrier, and the fact he was really fit, I told Harry there was only one way to beat them – run them off their feet.
"There were some decent horses behind us, but we were able to make full use of our weight advantage. We'll just have to space his runs a little, and hopefully, we can have some fun with him."
A training double courtesy of $63 outsider Superlative (Shafiq Rizuan) in the opener, the $30,000 Class 5 Division 1 race (1600m), came as a timely confidence-booster to Le Grange ahead of next Sunday's $1 million Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup (2000m) where one of the top picks will be his multiple South African Group 3 winner Katak.
"I'd also like to say a big thank you to the Yong family. They're one of my biggest supporters," he said.
"It was great to see Superlative return to winning ways in the first race."
A six-year-old by Ferlax, Superlative was posting his second win from 13 starts that also yielded two seconds for total prizemoney approaching the $100,000 mark for the Chelsea Stable, a spinoff of the Yong family's Gold Stable.
