Little Bridge successfully negotiated the leap of champions at Sha Tin yesterday, joining the elite group of Entrapment, Happy Zero, Sacred Kingdom and Silent Witness to win at his first start over 1,200 metres after dominating the straight course. Sent out a raging odds-on favourite, Little Bridge jumped well and settled beautifully behind the speed, before knuckling down to a fight with the lightly weighted challenger St Fevre to prevail by a short head. Trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing will continue to ready his young star for a clash with the heavyweight sprinters in December, and is adamant unbeaten Faltaat gelding will more than hold his own in group company. 'I have always known he is a good horse and I expected him to win again today,' Shum said. 'In the run, I thought he might actually win by more, and I did not expect St Fevre to get so close, but maybe he just switched off a bit once he hit the front like some of these good horses tend to do. 'It was a very pleasing result nonetheless, because he handled the bend, travelled well and got the distance no problems.' Jockey of the moment, Zac Purton, was a little more anxious in the straight, and threw everything at the four-year-old to get him home for the punters at $13.50. 'Little Bridge showed he has got a bit of courage and a good heart, and if you look at the stats for horses stepping up from a win over 1,000m to win over 1,200m the odds were probably stacked against him,' Purton said. 'There was a couple of worrying moments, and a few people will want to be critical of him and the narrow winning margin, but I won't be writing him off at all. 'He jumped well, put himself in a great position and switched off beautifully then, when I asked him to quicken, he took a funny stride and dipped, then wobbled around for 50m before he got balanced and started to motor.' Like Shum, Purton remains optimistic about the upside potential of the lightly raced New Zealand import. 'I'm not panicking with where he is at heading toward the International races, it is never easy to take such big leaps in class, and hopefully now the handicappers won't hammer him for that win like they did his first few. 'To skip up in the ratings by 12, 14 and then 13 points and then step into today's race was a real acid test. 'I think he was still learning today, but he has great gate speed and was able to put himself into the race like a professional, and I think the rest will come with maturity. Ideally he wouldn't meet the top guns for another six months, but Danny has to work with the programme we have got,' he added.
