WONDERFUL SLEW TAKES GOVERNOR'S CUP AGAIN

Leading Seoul rider, 2017 Kranji visitor Moon honours late father

- 

BUSAN - Wonderful Slew claimed the second leg of the Queens' Tour Fall & Winter by retaining the Group 3 Gyeongnam Governor's Cup (2,000m) at Busan Racecourse on Oct 20.

A maestro with the fillies, trainer Luigi Riccardi scored his first Korean Group race win with Choego Black in the Korean Oaks at Busan in 2021, but it is Wonderful Slew who has been his stable star, winning the race in 2023 and then adding the KNN Cup, also at Group 3 level this June.

The Italian handler has been operating at a win rate of 18 per cent and a top-three rate of nearly 49 per cent over the past year, the stable arriving on the south coast in peak form.

Sent off as the $9 favourite (on the Singapore Pools tote) to overturn the defeat she was handed by Jeulgoeunyeojeong over 1,400m in the Jeju Governor's Cup at Seoul in September, Wonderful Slew was sent out to track that filly, who herself had settled into second early behind Flying Star.

They would remain in that order, Wonderful Slew glued to Jeulgoeunyeojeong's tail, until the home straight. There, jockey Moon Se-young asked for an effort from Wonderful Slew and the pair quickly zipped by their main rival, before dismissing Flying Star with similar disdain and ran on to win by 21/2 lengths on the line.

Flying Star (Yoo Seung-wan) held on for second place while Jeulgeounyeojeong (Alan Munro) had to settle for third.