The Laurie Laxon trained Affleck turned his trial form into success taking out the Inglis Melbourne Stepitup Stakes in Singapore on Sunday afternoon.
New Zealand bred Affleck (Battle Paint x Greenstone) was making his race debut in the third leg of the S$1 million Golden Horseshoe Series for two-year-olds following four trials and the well-educated youngster had enough to outgun last start winner Barnato in the 1200m event on turf.
The job of jockey Danny Beasley was made easier when the favourite Barnato raced ungenerously pulling his way to the front, but Affleck made the most of the situation to camp behind the speed before pulling out in the straight and dashing away to a solid win. A Lot In Hand was four lengths further back in third.
"I knew he was a good horse before he came here. Again it's my agent Phil Cataldo who rang me and told me about him, and I can't stress enough how we cannot get good horses without a good agent," said Laxon.
"I'll see how he comes through this race, but he would be in the big race for sure," added Laxon.
The 'big race' Laxon was referring to is the Singapore Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe over 1200m on Friday 16 May 2014. The juvenile feature is worth S$325,000 plus bonuses.
The Golden Horseshoe is the sixth leg of the Singapore two-year-old series. S$30,000 bonuses are offered on each of the first five legs to AUS-bred horses that were offered for sale as yearlings by Inglis or Magic Millions.
Affleck was ineligible for today's S$30,000 bonus which will jackpot onto the final leg, the Golden Horseshoe.
Today's event was named in honour of Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale graduate Stepitup (Hussonet x Ain't Seen Nothin'), which was Singapore's Champion Three-Year-Old of 2013. The Bellerive Stud sold gelding is the nominal favourite for this year's Group 1 Singapore Derby over 2000m for four-year-olds in July.
The remaining three legs of the 2014 Singapore Golden Horseshoe Series for two-year-olds are:
Magic Millions National Yearling Stakes – Friday 2 May
Inglis Sydney Better Life Stakes – Friday 9 May
Singapore Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe – Friday 16 May
