Brazilian jockey Vagner
Leal took just one warm-up ride before landing his first win in Singapore on
PACINO at Kranji here tonight.
Leal took the nine-year-old
to the front and the pair did not surrender the lead, winning by three
quarters of a length in the Class 4 - 1200m handicap. It was the gelding's
eighth win in 95 starts.
I’m just so happy,” said a
beaming Leal as he returns to scale. “I never expected to win so quickly and
it’s a fantastic feeling."
Leal, 31, has ridden more
than 1,000 winners in a 13-year career that has seen him race in Argentina,
Uruguay, Dubai and his native Brazil. Among his noteworthy victories were
aboard L'AMICO STEVE in the Group 1 Grande Premio Brasil in 2007, his
country’s most prestigious race and in September this year he clinched
Uruguay’s famous Group 1 Clasico Gran Premio Polla De Potrillos.
Champion jockey in Sao
Paulo in 2011, Leal has finished in the top five in the premiership in each
of the past seven years. He was second on the table when he arrived in
Singapore last month.
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