Faithful Leader's 2nd Feature

Ex-Kranji galloper scores all-the-way win in Perak Community Shield for Richard Lim

- Sharon Zhang

Faithful Leader cruised home to a comfortable win in the RM100,000 (S$30,100) Perak Community Shield (1,200m) in Ipoh on May 11.

Trained by Richard Lim, the Super One six-year-old coincidentally brought up Lim's second trophy win — as a trainer — in Malaysia.

The former Malaysian champion jockey was no stranger to feature race wins, which included the 2006 Group 2 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (1,800m) on King And King at Kranji, as well as two Tunku Gold Cups in Kuala Lumpur with After Me Please (2002) and Golden Rainbow (2006), in his 16-year career in the saddle, but he only began training in Singapore in 2022.

Lim bagged his first and only Group win in Singapore with Super Salute in the 2024 Group 3 New Year Cup (1,200m).

After relocating to Malaysia at the end of 2024, the Ipoh-born Singaporean trainer collected his first silverware in Malaysia when Faithful Leader won the Japan Racing Association (JRA) Trophy, a Class 3 race (1,100m) in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 31.

A one-time winner over 1,000m in Singapore, Faithful Leader came from midfield to beat his rivals at his last win, but he assumed the front runner's role at his first race in Ipoh on May 11.