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where the horse is always the hero
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Posted 2007-10-14 00:00:00  
Shaw`s Setembro Chove overcomes leg problems

However the Springboks fare against Argentina in the Rugby World Cup`s semi-final tonight, South African trainer Patrick Shaw will probably not be going to bed without living it up with a samba dance routine in France.

It may not quite be the celebration of choice in the land of the gauchos, but Brazil is a South American neighbour and sure is the country of birth of Sunday`s $500,000 Group 1 Panasonic Kranji Mile winner, the Shaw-trained Setembro Chove.

Plagued with a history of bad legs, the lightly-raced entire by Fast Gold, is yet another fantastic advertisement of Shaw`s patience and knack at mollycoddling his problem horses.

Though Shaw is currently in Paris to watch his country scrum their way to the Final, he got a phone call from his faithful assistant Ricardo Le Grange as soon as Setembro Chove crossed the line first.

"I called Pat straightaway. It was a big buzz for him as you would imagine," said Le Grange.

"It`s been a great team effort to bring this horse to race fitness. We always thought he could have easily been the best horse in Kranji had it not been for his leg problems.

"It was another great ride by Robbie. I think there is still a lot of improvement in him from this run.

"He`s been nominated for the Hong Kong races � the 2000m and 2400m and we`ll see how it goes."

Fradd had the Jose Glaser-raced galloper settled at the rear, in front of just stablemate Mr Line and World Delight. The pace was moderate though it was battle stations in the initial 400m with Zinly (Adam Fiezan) emerging out first to take command.

Setembro Chove started to improve from the 1000m and was followed like his shadow by eventual first placegetter Kim Invader (Danny Beasley). By the 600m mark, Shaw`s galloper had already made up enough ground to find himself in a striking posie.

But the issue was far from a foregone conclusion as halfway up the straight, at least five contenders could lay claim to the top prize.

My Royal Captain (Din Azis) and Always Fast (Noel Callow) were thereabouts but were making heavy weather of it. Favourite King And King (Ronnie Stewart) looked a little pocketed on the fence but was purring to surge forward the moment a gap would open up.

The coup de grace however came from the Brazilian who let down the best in the final 50m to pick up the first leg of the Singapore Triple Crown Series with a flourish. The 7/1 shot has proven his doubters a big heart can overcome any leg niggles as was demonstrated � and probably overlooked � by his fourth place at his last start in May`s Singapore Airlines International Cup.

Fradd who has now captured his second Group 1 win (his first came with Our Falstaff in the 2006 Singapore Derby) was already rattling his sabres for Hong Kong.

"Wouldn`t it be great if we could get to Hong Kong with this super horse and poach some of their HK dollars for Singapore?" said the facetious South African.

"Is he up to the class? Why not? He holds a good formline from Doctor Dino (who finished third in the SIA Cup) who is a top international horse.

"The race itself was slower than I thought it would be. He`s a long striding horse and I had to pop him three to four wide to let him run freely.

"I pulled him around the home turn and he accelerated beautifully to score an impressive win.

"Pat deserves all the credit for this win. He`s patched him up after each of his run, the poor bugger and now he`s won a Group 1."

Kim Invader finished best among the rest to take second spot, 1 � lengths away while King And King was not disgraced with third, beaten by three parts of a length.

STC

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