Sunday, 17 September 2017: A wide barrier was no obstacle to bold frontrunner Crazy Dreams after he made all in the $60,000 Class 4 scamper over 1000m on Friday night.

Crazy Dreams winning the CLASS 4

An imposing four-length winner at his last start, but in easier Open Maiden company, Crazy Dreams was still backed down with great confidence to $15 favouritism despite drawing off the track in 12 and facing stronger cattle.

In the end, the Oratorio four-year-old gave his backers few anxious moments, stacking up the speed after securing the PVC before raising another gallop upon straightening. The next best-backed ($19) horse, Premier Fighter (Michael Rodd) made a strong bid down the middle of the track, but under jockey Benny Woodworth’s persuader, Crazy Dreams was never going to get beaten.

The official winning margin was one length from Premier Fighter with another gap of two-and-a-half lengths next ahead of big outsider Soon Yi (Nurshahril Nordin). The winning time was 58.61 seconds for the 1000m on the Polytrack.

Woodworth, who has been wasting hard to ride two horses handicapped at 50kgs at 1.5kgs over, looked all petered out after the 10-out-of-10 ride, but still caught his breath to give a glowing report on trainer Tan Hor Khoon’s eighth winner for the year.

“When the No 1 (Olympian Eager) came off, we thought he would have a good chance if he ran the same way as he did at his last start,” said the Malaysian hoop, who went on to make all the weight-shedding well worth it by winning aboard his lightweight chance (51.5kgs), debutant Lord Of Cloud for Leticia Dragon in the next race, the $35,000 Open Maiden Division 2 race over 1400m.

“The only worry was the wide gate, but this horse has a very good gate speed. I was able to get him across without using him too much.

“At the top of the straight, I still had plenty of horse under me. He was entitled to get a bit tired in the end, but he kept working home very well.

“Ah Khoon has a nice horse in this one. It’s good for him and the owner.”

Tan said there were no two other ways how Crazy Dreams should be ridden even after he was handed the horror gate.

“He had to go to the front. I told Benny he had to try and get him to the front to give him every chance,” said Tan about his simple go-forward plan.

“I was worried some horses would kick up on the inside and keep him out, but luckily, he was the fastest horse in the race.

“Once he had a clear run in front, I was quite confident he could go all the way again.

“I will give him a break after this race because he’s a horse who can’t handle the pressure of too much racing. He’s already done a good job to win twice and place three times in five runs.”

Indeed, Crazy Dreams  is proving to be a dream horse for his connections the Water Tower Stable who has already banked in in excess of $80,000 in stakes earnings.