The paragraph above is correct, but with a big BUT. And the big BUT is that it ignores the No.1 rider, the biggest fish ever in Singapore's small riding pond, Joao Moreira.

The 28-year-old Brazilian is in a class and race of his own, a runaway leader of the pack with 93 wins and, four-and-a-half months into the season, on target for a 200-plus, even 250-plus, tally after setting a mark of 153 last year.

"If Moreira wasn't here ..." Baster mused, while admitting he was very happy with how he had performed since leaving the Wadham Park stable in Victoria.

"I've settled in really, really well, considering that when I came I hoped to ride a winner a week." With the weeks tally going on 17 and the wins tally pushing 30, you can see why Baster emphasised the "really well".

Here's a brief Q & A from thethoroughbred.com's interview leading into the Friday and Sunday races, in which Baster had rides for Michael Freedman - in Friday's big two (Last Man Standing in the Aushorse Golden Horseshoe, 1200m, and Cash Luck in the Singapore Guineas, 1600m) and, in Sunday's international Group 1s (Mr Big in the KrisFlyer, 1200m, and Always Certain in the Singapore Airlines International Cup, 2000m).

Q: How did the Singapore job come about?

A: I just answered a Turf Club call, turned up and (from the first morning at Kranji) did my best.

Q: Who are you riding for?

A: Aussie blokes like Steven Burridge and Michael Freedman were very good to me to start with and they've continued to support me. That got me going. Since then a lot of the local guys have put me on. I think I've ridden winners for nine individual trainers now. The more people you ride for the more chance you've got of getting good rides.

Q: What's a typical week?

A: On Monday you're busy ringing for rides, for Friday and Sunday.

Tuesday: trackwork and trials.

Wednesday: trackwork and 400m jumpouts.

Thursday: trackwork and trials again.

Friday: trackwork and races at night.

Saturday: jumpouts on the grass track, a relatively easy day.

Sunday: races.

Q: What's your future in Singapore?

A: This contract, six months, finishes at the end of June. My applications in to stay longer, at least to the end of the year (expected to be a formality) then I hope to be here quite a while, especially if I keep riding winners. Everything looks promising at this stage.

Q: Are the races run any differently in Singapore compared with Australia?

A: They probably are, especially on the Polytrack. At home, races really are slowly run and made a sprint home; here, the speed is on and it makes it a bit easier to ride.

Q: Your biggest win in Singapore?

A: Mr Big won a G3 race (the Kranji Sprint, 1200m, on April 8).

Q: Do you like him (for the weekend)?

A: He's a beauty, a tough little bugger. And my horse in the 2YO is a nice horse (Last Man Standing).

The paragraph above is correct, but with a big BUT. And the big BUT is that it ignores the No.1 rider, the biggest fish ever in Singapore's small riding pond, Joao Moreira.

The 28-year-old Brazilian is in a class and race of his own, a runaway leader of the pack with 93 wins and, four-and-a-half months into the season, on target for a 200-plus, even 250-plus, tally after setting a mark of 153 last year.

"If Moreira wasn't here ..." Baster mused, while admitting he was very happy with how he had performed since leaving the Wadham Park stable in Victoria.

"I've settled in really, really well, considering that when I came I hoped to ride a winner a week." With the weeks tally going on 17 and the wins tally pushing 30, you can see why Baster emphasised the "really well".

Here's a brief Q & A from thethoroughbred.com's interview leading into the Friday and Sunday races, in which Baster had rides for Michael Freedman - in Friday's big two (Last Man Standing in the Aushorse Golden Horseshoe, 1200m, and Cash Luck in the Singapore Guineas, 1600m) and, in Sunday's international Group 1s (Mr Big in the KrisFlyer, 1200m, and Always Certain in the Singapore Airlines International Cup, 2000m).

Q: How did the Singapore job come about?

A: I just answered a Turf Club call, turned up and (from the first morning at Kranji) did my best.

Q: Who are you riding for?

A: Aussie blokes like Steven Burridge and Michael Freedman were very good to me to start with and they've continued to support me. That got me going. Since then a lot of the local guys have put me on. I think I've ridden winners for nine individual trainers now. The more people you ride for the more chance you've got of getting good rides.

Q: What's a typical week?

A: On Monday you're busy ringing for rides, for Friday and Sunday.

Tuesday: trackwork and trials.

Wednesday: trackwork and 400m jumpouts.

Thursday: trackwork and trials again.

Friday: trackwork and races at night.

Saturday: jumpouts on the grass track, a relatively easy day.

Sunday: races.

Q: What's your future in Singapore?

A: This contract, six months, finishes at the end of June. My applications in to stay longer, at least to the end of the year (expected to be a formality) then I hope to be here quite a while, especially if I keep riding winners. Everything looks promising at this stage.

Q: Are the races run any differently in Singapore compared with Australia?

A: They probably are, especially on the Polytrack. At home, races really are slowly run and made a sprint home; here, the speed is on and it makes it a bit easier to ride.

Q: Your biggest win in Singapore?

A: Mr Big won a G3 race (the Kranji Sprint, 1200m, on April 8).

Q: Do you like him (for the weekend)?

A: He's a beauty, a tough little bugger. And my horse in the 2YO is a nice horse (Last Man Standing).

There's no doubting man and horse are grown up, and their records trumpet that: Laxon, in his mid-60s but admitting only to "I'm older than 56," has won six Singapore premierships (from 2004-09) in the 12 years he has been there and not finished further back than third; and he owns eight-year-old Waikato, who has 19 wins and 16 seconds from 66 starts.

And this May weekend has been good to the horse, with the Pins gelding about to race at Kranji on the Singapore Turf Club's biggest weekend for the sixth season in a row.

It all began at his first race, in 2007, a win - his only one on the May weekend - a maiden over 1200m on the night before the big Sunday meeting.

In the other four he has raced, and finished in the money, at the top level on the big day itself.

The first two were sprints, the then domestic G1 KrisFlyer (it's now an international G1), when he was fourth to Takeover Target (2008) and Sacred Kingdom (2009), Global Sprint Challenge stars.

The next year (2010), NZ-bred Waikato (he is by Pins from Skywalker Wilkes (USA), whose dam Vivarchi won a Golden Slipper) was mature enough to tackle longer races, so it was on to the G1 Singapore Airlines International Cup (2000m). That year, when fourth to Lizard's Desire, he was the top Singapore finisher, as he was last year when he deadheated for third behind Gitano Hernando.

This year he could well be the first local home again and build on his $S2.93 million (about $A2.3 million) prizemoney, already a brilliant return from a $50,000 outlay, and from a horse Laxon kept himself when an Asian buyer changed his mind about taking him.

Laxon explained that he was 'accidently' broken in without his knowledge in New Zealand - Waikato was a December foal and Laxon had intended to delay the breaking process to give him the chance to mature. He developed a cyst on a back leg, had it operated on and then went to the paddock for a long and delayed break.

When Laxon got the gelding to Singapore he had a further break, which the trainer said was the best thing for him and now Waikato "just loves being a racehorse".

Laxon, trainer of the 1988 Melbourne Cup winner Empire Rose (and former husband of Sheila Laxon, who trained the 2001 Cup winner, Ethereal), loves training racehorses, saying: "My job is easy I have 62 horses in work and I have 35 staff, so it's just a matter of using your knowledge and organisational skills. It's not really like work because training racehorses is my hobby - I think if you can get a living off your hobby it's what you should be happiest doing.

"I started racing here in 2000 which is 12 years ago. I've trained over 900 winners at this one racetrack and I'm heading towards 1000. That's what I want to do."

Laxon is going just as strongly as his four-legged old marvel, although Waikato is his only runner on Sunday - he got his entries in on time for the big Friday card (the 'prelim' meeting moved from the Saturday night three years ago), but the fax with his Sunday nominations was a minute late and not accepted, so he has to have, largely, a watching brief. (Cup entries were made weeks before the meeting.)

Odds are Laxon will get the fax in early next year. What odds Waikato will be among them?

"I think so," the trainer said. "He's sound, has no soundness issues whatsoever. He's never bled, touch wood, so he's quite youthful for his age ... he enjoys it here, so why not."

Can he be the first Singapore horse home again? "He's a good galloper and if he gets a good barrier draw - I think that's important in these 2000m races, so you get a softer run around the first turn, he's a big chance."

Waikato drew 8 in the 13-horse field. Details at www.turfclub.com.sg.

Trainer Pat Shaw and owner Fred Crabbia decided to err on the side of caution after the six-year-old Viscount gelding succumbed to a ligament strain to his near foreleg.

The Singapore Turf Club's website,www.turfclub.com.sg, reported that club veterinary surgeon Curry Keoughan said Rocket Man had a swollen medial suspensory ligament.

Rocket Man had a mild strain after running second to Krypton Factor, from Bahrain, in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen (1200m) on the artificial Tapeta track at Meydan in Dubaion March 31, but Shaw was able to win his fourth straight Lion City (1200m) on April 29. That race is a domestic Group 1, unlike the KrisFlyer, an international Group 1 and a leg of the Global Sprint Challenge—Rocket Man won it last year after finishing second in 2010 and 2009.

Shaw described it as a "sporting injury" and likened it to an athlete who runs so fast that he over-reaches. "It's like twisting an ankle," Shaw told the website. "All it needs is rest and he will get over it.

"If we were to press on it could cause long-term damage or, even worse, irreparable damage and that was not a risk I could take. And, remember, he has a screw in the other leg as well.

"He can have a good rest now and we will get him back up for his next campaign."

Rocket Man was looking for a repeat victory in the KrisFlyer after scoring a breakthrough win last year at his third attempt.​

Rocket Man's South African rider Felix Coetzee didn't find out about the scratching until he was on the plane from Johannesburg to Singapore and a racing writer going to the carnival told him. Coetzee, however, won't miss out on his chance to win another international Group 1—he will ride California Memory in the Cup.

Krypton Factor, to be ridden by Kieren Fallon, will start very short in the KrisFlyer now, and without the local hero the race will run a distinct second on Sunday to the richer ($S3 million) Singapore Airlines International Cup (2000m).

The lead-in meeting on Friday night features the Singapore Guineas (1600m) for three-year-olds and the final of the Aushorse series (1200m) for two-year-olds.

Sunday's turf race still has plenty of glamour, with clash of Singapore's star Rocket Man and Bahrain's Krypton Flyer, the latter successful in their only meeting, in the $2,000,000 Group 1 Golden Shaheen (1200m) on the artificial Tapeta surface at Meydan in March. The race was the previous leg of the GCS.

Unfortunately, reports from the track have Rocket Man as a "day-to-day proposition" with swelling in a leg.

Pat Cummings of www.dubairacenight.com wrote that trainer Pat Shaw said Rocket Man had a similar problem before he won the Singapore Group 1 Lion City Cup (1200m) at Kranji at his only start since Dubai.

"The swelling has been there for a while now and we have been keeping a close eye on it," Shaw said after trackwork yesterday. "We had him scanned and x-rayed last week and he's going for another scan.

"It really is just day-to-day with him.

"I put a bit of work into him on two days running last week and he seems OK at this stage. Touch wood we can get him to the race, but what I don't want to happen is to see him pull up lame in the races."

The local hero, of course, will start ridiculously short as he tries to add to last year's KrisFlyer victory that followed seconds to Hong Kong horses the two years before that - Green Birdie in 2010 and Sacred Kingdom in 2009.

Rocket Man (b g 7, Viscount-Macrosa (NZ)) won 20 of his 27 starts. Felix Coetzee has been engaged for the KrisFlyer.

Krypton Flyer (b/br g 4, Kyllachy (GB)-Cool Question (GB)) is trained in Bahrain by Fawzi Nass. Kieren Fallon, who won on the gelding in Dubai, will ride him again.

Singapore-based Australian trainer Michael Freedman has two runners in the race - Better Be The One, to be ridden by Kranji's top jock, the Brazilian Joao Moreira, and Mr Big, with another Singapore-based Aussie, Stephen Baster, to ride.

This is the second year that Australia has not had a runner. Hay List, who was to have been a contender, is fighting a battle to get back to the track after illness and injury.

Gold Trail finished fourth and Eagle Falls fifth in 2010. Takeover Target was eighth in 2009 after winning in 2008 from Magnus.

Australia has no rep in the $S3,000,000 Group 1 Singapore Airlines International Cup (2000m), the race won in 2005 by Mummify - our last runners were in 2009 when Pompeii Ruler was fourth and Sarrera sixth.

Friday night's meeting, the "warm-up card" for Sunday, has two headline races: the Aushorse series final for 2YOs over 1200m and the Singapore Guineas (1600m) for 3YOs.

Further details: www.turfclub.com.sg

First up is the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin on Sunday April 29, with the BMW Champions Mile completing the tour of duty seven days later.

To give the second sponsor its due, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has continued the split begun last year, before which the Mile played second fiddle to the richer Cup. The Cup is still worth two million more (that's $HK14 million to $HK12 million, about 1.75 mill to 1.5 in our dollars), but the Mile is no longer buried.

Audemars Piguet must remain happy, because the HKJC has announced that the watchmaker has signed on for three more meetings. The club must wonder, however, what this year's QEII will offer.

Respected analyst Alan Aitken, in the South China Morning Post, described the four internationals selected as a disappointing roll call. They are Irish Derby winner Treasure Beach, trained by Aidan O'Brien, who was fourth in the $5 million Sheema Classic (2400m) in Dubai; Japan's Rulership, yet to win at Group 1; French 7YO Chinchon, fourth to Presvis in the QEII three years ago; and South African Mike de Kock's Viscount Nelson, a $1 million Godolphin mile placegetter in Dubai.

Conversely, local punters will see this merely as a chance to back their heroes, led by last year's quinella Ambitious Dragon and California Memory, seventh and 12th respectively in the 1800m $5 million Dubai Duty Free at Meydan, and Irian and Thumbs Up. (Connections later announced that Ambitious Dragon would switch to the Mile.)

After Hong Kong, the caravan rolls on to Singapore, and this column will be at Kranji for the $S3 million (about $2.32 million) Singapore Airlines International Cup (2000m) and the $S1 million (about $0.77 million) Krisflyer International Sprint (1200m) on May 20.

The Krisflyer (won in 2008 by new Australian Hall Of Fame inductee Takeover Target) is the fourth leg of the Global Sprint Challenge.

Hay List was one of six Australian nominations this year, but a colic attack and leg injury have him on the sidelines again. How many Australian horses actually get to Singapore for the meeting will be known early in next month.

The GSC race on the rich Dubai night was the $2 million G1 Golden Shaheen (1200m) on the Tapeta (artificial) surface, in which Krypton Factor from Bahrain ran down brave Singaporean Rocket Man, bred in Australia and a certain favourite for the Krisflyer, which he won last year.

The first GSC race this year, of course, was the $750,000 G1 Coolmore Lightning Stakes (1000m) at Flemington that saw Black Caviar tested by Hay List; the second flew under our radar-the Takamatsunomiya Kinen (1200m) at Chukyo, an all-Japanese affair won by Curren Chan.

After Singapore, the global caravan rolls up at Royal Ascot in June. The five-day meeting has two GSC races, the G1 King's Stand (1000m)-recent Dubai winner Ortensia has it as a target-and four days later the 1200m G1 race, now called the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, that Black Caviar looks to have at her mercy.

Two nights before the big Cup-Sprint meeting, Singapore runs the final race of the seven-leg series for 2YOs, the $S1 million Golden Horseshoe Series sponsored by Aushorse, Inglis, IRT and Magic Millions.

Nigge described the 1200-acre (485-hectare) property as a five-star hotel for horses, and Americain, as the 2010 Emirates Melbourne Cup winner and rated the world's best stayer last year, had earned something better than any old bed-and-breakfast farm.

With trainer David Hayes spending some $12 million on the place to give it a value of $18-$20 million, the state-of-the-art training farm 150km north-east of Melbourne passed Nigge's test, and that of owners Gerry and Val Ryan and Kevin and Colleen Bamford.

And taking over as trainer of Americain, who is staying in Australia after racing in Victoria for French trainer Alain de Royer Dupre, Hayes had a headline horse he hoped would give him his 61st Australian Group 1 win and 79th overall.

Frenchwoman Nigge, 24, was part of the deal, happily staying with American after de Royer Dupre had entrusted the stallion to her for his 2010 and 2011 spring campaigns while he supervised by phone from Chantilly before flying in for the Melbourne Cups-Americain was fourth (and perhaps unlucky not to win again) last year.

The horse's first-start target this year is the $1 million Group 1 Dubai Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 10 before heading to Sydney for The BMW ($2.25 million, Group 1, 2400m) at Rosehill on April 7.

Just as Nigge says she and Americain are lucky to be at Lindsay Park, Hayes says he is lucky to have Nigge because she takes away the trial and error that goes with a new horse in the stable.

For more on Americain's new home see the March edition of Inside Racing, out now.

The old house and stables at No. 68 Kambrook Rd are gone. Now there's just rubble and weeds next to a gated entrance to the Melbourne Racing Club's members' car park. The gate has shields with VATC on them-for Victoria Amateur Turf Club, the former name of the club that races at Caulfield.

Clark was one of hundreds who trained off-course at Caulfield, a number that has dwindled to one with Geoff Wheeler, at 15 Manchester Gr on the other side of the track, the last man standing. Peter Moody, Victoria's champion trainer for the past two seasons from his on-course Amalfi Lodge, actually set up in stables in Kambrook Rd when he came to Victoria from Queensland.

Wheeler, former neighbour Tommy Lanyon (now at Deniliquin), Lanyon's mate Paul Gorman (now at Benalla), Colin Little (who trains on course from Lord Lodge), Bobby Scarlett (who rode and trained at Caulfield), retired clocker Jim Meek and Clark, both octogenerians, helped Inside Racing prepare a map of where many of the stables were, their memories fresh with most, hazy with some.

Clark showed Inside Racing through heritage-listed stables near Kambrook Road, in the backyard of 1 Bond St, and pointed out that the property was sold recently for $1,625,000 by Lee Parkinson. It had been owned by the trainer Bill Parkinson (Lee's father) before him. Les Carstens, who had the good horses Marmion and General Grant, trained from the yard in the late 1960s, and in recent years track-based trainers used the stables as their overflow boxes.

There are no horses there now, but unlike other backyards where horses were stabled, this one won't disappear-there was a heritage overlay on the sale. There's a rough chance there's cash among the remains, too, Clark recalling that Bill Parkinson used to hide his winnings in a chaff box, and perhaps elsewhere.

Clark and other Caulfield "lifers" are aware of the significance of horses and horse-housing in the history of the area around the track, extending for kilometres in several directions. Jack James, for example, used to walk a string of 20 horses from Mackie Rd, East Bentleigh, in the 1940s.

Meek, 84, who grew up in Alamar Ave, Glen Huntly, recalled that in the Depression years of the 1930s "everyone had horses" and horses provided work when children were old enough to bring in extra pence.

Meek worked for Mick Crossey, in Epsom St, as a kid and said "Mick had two good ones" (Sir Romeo and Similar, who won the 1944 Australian Cup) and that when disqualified for a year trained his horses from a balcony near the track. And Meek said that in the late 1930s that Bill Jeffries, in Manchester Gr, had one that "always saluted when the cupboard was bare". "Lady something" was as much of the name as he could recall ...

More stories of the off-track trainers, and a map showing where they had stables near the course, are in the February edition of Inside Racing, out now at newsagents or by subscription. Inquiries: phone 1300 139 401 or email cfcc@racingvictoria.net.au