Qiji Diamond gets his night to shine
After weathering a fair bit of pressure in the lead, the $8 pop looked home and hosed halfway up the straight when he opened up by two lengths hard up against the rails, but that confidence suddenly turned shaky when $28 chance Shepherd's Hymn (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) jumped out of the ground inside the last furlong to issue a tardy, but stinging challenge.
The hotpot's last strides were worryingly laboured, but the winning post came soon enough to bail him out.
Half-a-length was the beaten margin on Shepherd's Hymn with Rocket Pegasus (Michael Rodd) third another 1 ½ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 10.58secs for the 6 f on the Short Course.
"He's been a consistent horse since he came to He is still maturing," said Logan.
"The 6 f is his best trip, but he just made it tonight. The Qiji owners have been with me for quite some time, and I'm very grateful for their support.
"I'm very pleased I've got another winner for them. They've been good clients and patronise us both in New Zealand and Australia."
Duric said that first win out of the way can only boost the Kuroshio three-year-old's confidence.
"There are two reasons why he felt the pinch late. He never trialled and was a bit soft, and it was his first time under the lights," said the three-time Singapore champion jockey.
"I think he had stage fright tonight, but he will be much better from the experience. He's a nice progressive sort who can go over 14 to 16 in the future."
An A$50,000 purchase as a two-year-old in Australia, Qiji Diamond has been knocking on the door with two seconds and two thirds at his previous five starts and has now bumped his stakes earnings to more than $80,000 for the Qiji Diamond Stable with that maiden success.
