Sunday, 2 December 2018: Kranji jockeys Troy See and Nooresh Juglall were among the four Air Mauritius & Attitude International Jockeys’ Weekend jockeys to ride trackwork at the Champ de Mars racecourse in Mauritius on Friday morning.

Troy See after his easy canter on his first ever Mauritius ride around the Champ de Mars, The Thinker.

While Juglall is no beginner at the oldest racecourse (206 years old) in the Southern Hemisphere, See is the absolute beginner. Singapore’s leading apprentice jockey was still prepared to sacrifice his holiday time by waking up at 4.30am (Mauritius trackwork starts at 5am) just so he could get the lie of the land – both the way the track rides and the horses.



See rode two of his 13 horses, the first being The Thinker (Race 6, the Air Mauritius ‘Pailles En Queue” Trophy 2018 over 1400m on Sunday) followed a few minutes later by one of his ante-post early favourites, Ouzo (Race 5, the Zilwa Attitude Cup over 1400m on Saturday).

With the races only days away, both gallopers did only slow work. Paired up with another runner (Captain Falcon) on The Thinker, See did warm-up in the trotting track before finishing off with one lap of canter on the sand track.



It was even slower with Ouzo (pictured above with See) – three laps in the trotting track, but the winner of three at his last three starts was a ball of energy upon his return to the mounting yard.

“It’s different from Kranji, obviously. They are running on the true course and it still looked pretty narrow (12 to 14 metres) and tight,” said See.



“The going felt good, though, even if a little cut up around some areas. It’s a steep climb to the winning post from the top of the straight – I was told at a gradient that rises as tall as a three-storey building over a straight of only 250m!

“But the two horses I worked felt good, especially Ouzo. He’s very switched on as he has not raced for more than two months.



“He needed a good warm-up after the freshen-up. I also watched his last three wins on the trot at the trainer’s stables.



“I then walked the track with Brandon Louis (leading Mauritian apprentice jockey due to begin a three-month Singapore indentureship with Stephen Gray soon) who gave me some very precious tips how best to ride the track.”

See – who begins his next chapter as a professional jockey from January 1 - also took time to soak in the atmosphere at the Champ de Mars – a world of difference from anything he has seen at Kranji.



“There were a lot of people in the stand and even at the back where there is a street they close off to traffic for horses to walk.



“I thought they were stable staff, but they were actually members of the public who wake up at 4.30am just to come and see horses walk for an idea of their fitness level!”



Truth is there were probably a lot more than usual on that Friday because for once, the eyes were more on the jockeys than horses. It was announced earlier in the week some of the IJW jockeys (other two were Seamie Heffernan and Akshay Kumar while Dwayne Dunn came down but did not ride, only walked the track) and Fegentri lady riders would be on parade on Friday.


Mauritius-born but South African-trained and now Kranji- based Juglall was obviously more blasé about being one of the crowd pullers. He was at his second time riding trackwork after Thursday, sounding rather bullish at least one winner awaited him on either Saturday or Sunday.



He rode Winter Is Coming (Race 2, the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Cup over 1400m) and Victory Team (Race 6, the Air Mauritius ‘Pailles En Queue” Trophy 2018 over 1400m on Sunday).



“Winter Is Coming gave me a nice feel this morning. He is a strong one-pacer and I think he will run a good race,” said Juglall.



“Troy’s Ouzo looked good, but I think my ride in that race, Bonnie Prince, can run a cheeky race.”