What started out as a working holiday has turned into the trip of a lifetime for Shankar Muniandy.
When the 30-year-old jockey gets back to New Zealand after a three month stint in Malaysia, he will return a group-one winning rider after taking out the Perak Gold Vase aboard Indian Jade over the weekend.
Muniandy described the winning his first group one race in his homeland as the ultimate thrill.
“It is really, if you're riding in your home country,'' he said.
“Born and bred here and to win a group-one in your home place, Mum and Dad are very pleased.’’
The White Robe Lodge jockey did not get his group-one easily, Indian Jade fought out an epic home-stretch battle with runner up Volcanic General.
The pair went toe to toe down the very outside of the Perak track, with Muniandy able to extract enough out of Indian Jade to win the 1100m group-one by a head.
“It was pretty hard because the horse had never won over the distance before, I just tried my best and held him up as long as I can.”
“At the top of the straight I let him go and he tried hard.”
The 7yr-old handed ex-pat Aussie trainer Frank Maynard his third consecutive win in the Perak Gold Vase on the Perak racetrack.
Maynard spotted Muniandy’s riding style on one of his previous working holidays in Malaysia and was impressed, that led the trainer approaching the rider recently about the possibility of him riding Indian Jade.
“I was riding in Kuala Lumpur and he saw me and he said give me a ring next week, so I did and he told me I want rider for the Gold Vase.”
“I hadn’t seen the horse before in my life, didn’t ride it, work or anything, just got on the horse the first time and got a good result.”
The group one victory was Muniandy’s first win since arriving in Malaysia in early June.
Though he has reached the race riding’s ultimate heights in his homeland, that will not stop him from returning to White Robe Lodge, as scheduled, in the spring.
“Definitely – its my home.’’
