Saimee knows he must whip up something special

Dubai: Wins have never been hard to come by for Jumaat Saimee, but the Singaporean champion jockey knows he will have to produce something special on Sunday if he is to claim a second win in his country's richest horse race.

Saimee, 35, who notched his 1,000th victory in Malaysia in November, has won most of the major Malayan Racing Association races, including the inaugural Singapore International Airlines Cup in 2000.

That year the Malcolm Thwaites-trained Ouzo was good enough to win it for Saimee but despite three more attempts the seven-time champion jockey has not managed to capture the title again.

Hopeful

This time he rides Chevron in the $3 million race. Trained by Charles Leck and drawn in gate six Chevron will go against the likes of Herman Brown's Jay Peg, winner of the Group 1 $5 million Dubai Duty Free in March and Balius trained by Carlos Laffon-Parais, who finished second by a neck to another Dubai-based horse, Archipenko, in the Group 1 Audemars Piguet QE II Cup in Hong Kong last month.

"From the Singapore horses I would say that Chevron is the best chance," said Saimee.

"But looking at the field the international horses are quite strong this year and I'm hopeful but not too confident."

Saimee also rates local contender Onceuponatime ridden by Australia's Danny Beasley and trained by David Hill, but he says that he expects the biggest threat to be Gallic.

Problem

"The French horse Balius will be quite dangerous I think," he added.

The second big race tomorrow, the revamped $1 million KrisFlyer Sprint, will see Saimee on board Why Be, the Singapore champion for the past two years. Prepared by top trainer Laurie Laxon from New Zealand, Why Be has disappointed in his last few outings, a problem that Saimee believes will be remedied by the trainer's decision to race him in blinkers.

And a scorching trial race on the training track at the beginning of the week would seem to indicate the horse has found his form.