Wednesday, 18 April 2018: Vlad Duric is not only quick on his horses when it comes to making split-second decisions, but also on his phone, it would seem.

Zac Kasa

The Singapore champion jockey and current leader received a phone call from trainer Lee Freedman on Monday afternoon, saying that Augustano, his booking for the second Leg of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge, the $500,000 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) was not running.

Without missing a beat, Duric dialled another number, and next thing the quick-thinking hoop knew, he had landed himself the plum ride on one of the favourites in the race – Zac Kasa.

“At 3.59pm yesterday, Lee called to tell me Augustano would not be running. At 4pm, I rang Cliffy (Brown) to ask if he had found a rider for Zac Kasa,” said the Australian jockey.



“He said he had not and was glad to have me on board. Michael Rodd will be riding the other Cliffy horse (Mister Yeoh).



“It wasn’t an easy decision for Michael to make as both horses are really good, and I’m quite happy to get my chance to ride Zac Kasa .”



The impressive speedster reigned supreme by making all on debut before getting caught close home by Lord O’Reilly at his second start. Both his first two starts were over 1200m on turf when he had blinkers on.



Feeling that the bold frontrunner was pulling like a train with the headgear, Brown dropped them at his last in a Class 4 Premier race over 1200m on Polytrack on April 8 - with instant dividends. Zac Kasa flew the lids for Rodd, who was aboard at all his three runs, and won in a hand-canter.



Having been in all three races – on three placegetters actually – Duric was happy he would not be seeing the Reset grey’s rear this time.



‘He’s a very smart horse. I rode him in his trackwork this morning and he did his usual 38 on Track 6 and he was in good shape,” said Duric.