Mar 12, 2025

Lim’s Kosciuszko’s former jockey flies from NZ for one-day gig at Tunku Gold Cup day

Marc Lerner’s record of three wins in 10 rides in Malaysia will get a chance of a boost this weekend.

The French jockey flies in from his current New Zealand base to ride at the Tunku Gold Cup meeting in Kuala Lumpur on March 16.

A winner of around 450 races, Lerner last rode in Ipoh on April 7, 2024 when he was then based at Kranji at his last Singapore season by virtue of the closure in October.

Re-booked by the Buffalo Stable following a successful first visit at Kuala Lumpur with a win aboard the Lawson Moy-trained Trumpy on Feb 18, 2024, Lerner did not fail in his mission with the same horse in the Group 1 Perak Derby (2,000m). The trio even combined for a double with Fireworks.

Since Lerner left Kranji the winner of 223 races, including eight at Group 1 level, half of them with two-time Singapore Horse of the Year Lim’s Kosciuszko, the 34-year-old globetrotting jockey has been plying his trade in New Zealand.

But when a chance to return to South-east Asia came up, even for just one day, the answer was unhesitatingly “yes”.

“I was at first offered to ride King Arthur in the Tunku Gold Cup about a month ago,” said Lerner who, besides Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand, has also ridden in France, US, Germany and Qatar.

“But King Arthur won’t run in the end. The trainer (Veerapen Sivan) put me on Super Salute instead.

“I’ve never ridden Super Salute before but we all know what a good horse he was in Singapore.”

Lerner would have mostly seen the I Am Invincible six-year-old in his rear view mirror. As the regular rider of Lim’s Kosciuszko, he had Super Salute among the beaten brigade twice.

Still, with Lim’s Kosciuszko out of the way – in Australia, gearing up for his new career at his trainer Daniel Meagher’s new Pakenham stables – Lerner backs his new mount in the RM300,000 (S$90,300) Group 1 feature over 1,200m, sponsored by a well-known Singapore racing company, Equine Sanctuary.

“Super Salute is a horse who was very genuine and was just behind the best in Singapore,” said Lerner who reaches Malaysia on the morning of March 14 and returns to New Zealand on March 17.

“He’s run three races in Malaysia and has done well with a second and a third.

“I think the trainer has found a suitable race for him, he’ll be competitive, even if Te Akau Ben is the horse to beat.”

Lerner has picked up six other rides – three more for Sivan (Oneway Abra, One Abracadabra and Variant), reuniting with Moy for two (Desi Master and Lim’s Sinai) and a horse he knows well, Rocket Star.

In four rides, he rode the former Ricardo Le Grange-trained galloper to a second place to Inferno in the Group 1 Singapore Guineas in 2020. Rocket Star will be at his Malaysian debut, for Malaysia’s champion trainer Simon Dunderdale.

The Kiwi trainer can only hope to have the same luck some of his fellow New Zealand trainers enjoyed with Lerner back home.

“I’ve ridden 10 winners and many placings in 89 rides in New Zealand, as well as a third place in a Group 1 race,” said Lerner.

“The main difference from Singapore is the travelling – as much as 4,500km in one month, which is probably the part I enjoy the least.

“But the winners make up for it.”

Source : Michael Lee