Passed from trainer to trainer several times in the course of his career, the Australian gelding simply refused to surrender to his fate and he is now rewarded with a trophy success to show for his tenacity.
Ridden by apprentice Nuqman Faris Rozi, San Andreas brought up a winning hattrick when he romped to a 4 1/2-length victory in the Starprint Public Company Limited Thailand Trophy at Sungei Besi here today.
The six-year-old had won his last two starts in Class 4 and Class 3 over 1400m but nevertheless displayed a swift turn of foot to score over the much shorter 1250m trip of the Class 3 event.
San Andreas was purchased for racing in Malaysia and landed unraced in 2019. He had a trial under trainer Mohd Sukri but before he had his first race, was shipped to Singapore to join trainer Tim Fitzsimmons.
After a few short months, he was transferred to Michael Clements before finally making his racing debut at the age of four.
San Andreas scored once in five starts for Clements. He was then transferred to Mark Walker for a couple of months (without racing) before finding his way back to Malaysia and was renamed (from Marikh) by his new owners.
Under trainer Simon Dunderdale, San Andreas managed to regain form and also found some consistency with two wins and two seconds in eight outings.
The son of Smart Missile was on the move again three months ago when he came under the charge of AB Abdullah and under his new trainer he has further progress with three wins in four starts.
"I was instructed not to lead but sit third or fourth spot behind the pace and the trainer told me the horse will come home for me," said Nuqman who was riding the gelding for the first time today.
San Andreas was the third leg of a superb treble — the second of his career — for Nuqman today.
The lad took the opening event on JJ STAR and three races later returned to winner's circle with Smooth Operator , both paying RM95 on the win tote.
"I did not expect JJ STAR to win quite easily and this is my first time riding the horse," said Nuqman. It was the fourth win in 59 starts for JJ STAR since making his debut in 2018.
"Smooth Operator hung in badly in the straight and despite that we managed to win by a short head," revealed Nuqman who rode the gelding twice before, finishing down the field both times.
The eight-year-old won two races in Singapore and has now picked up four more wins since moving to Malaysia.
