MORNINGTON-based racehorse trainer Jim Conlan is set to train Singapore’s second highest-rated galloper and five-time Group One winner, Debt Collector.
The former Cliff Brown-trained “Horse of the Year” (2016) has amassed more than $3.1 million in prize money and is set to leave for Australia this month.
Debt Collector, a 122-rated six-year-old gelding, has claimed 12 wins and four placings from his 24 starts, including two Group Two’s and a Group Three.
It will be the Singapore star’s second trip to Australia, having spelled for five months at Newhaven Farm in the Hunter Valley last year. That trip came after his form took a nosedive at the end of 2017 and clearly worked wonders with the gelding returning to Singapore to add four more wins to his tally, including two at Group One level over 1600m and 1800m.
Conlan said the conditions Debt Collector will encounter at Pinecliff will be in stark contrast to those he had in Singapore.
“Cliff rang me a couple of weeks ago and was telling me the horse was having a few issues handling the conditions in Singapore,” Conlan said.
“I’ve watched all his replays, he’s obviously a fairly talented horse, but it’s always a bit of a query how Singapore form will translate in Australia. But he’s probably the best performed horse to come out of Singapore for a while.
“It will be exciting to see where he ends up.”
Conlan, who trains out of Pinecliff, Mount Eliza, has already had success with another former Singapore galloper, Clear For Action, who claimed a Moonee Valley metropolitan race in the winter of 2013. Clear For Action was also formerly trained by Brown and had finished second in three Group One races prior to debuting in Australia.
Debt Collector will need to enter Australian quarantine before heading into Conlan’s care.
First published in the Mornington News – 4 June 2019
