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The first running of a newly named feature event at Kranji looks an ideal opportunity for Flying Fulton to win his fourth G3 race.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Flying Fulton looks well suited in the S$175K Colonial Chief Stakes over 1700m on the poly and he can continue what is an outstanding record at this level and on the all weather.
Mark Walker trains the big gelded son of Flying Spur and will see Race Seven tonight as another nice race and stake for his greatest earner since becoming a Singapore trainer.
The facts and figures do stack up for Flying Fulton starting with he already has three G3 wins in the bank and finds this level under 58kg as money for jam or old rope.
His poly record is a superb five wins and three placings from ten outings and the two times he missed paying a dividend resulted in a fourth and a sixth over April and February of 2011.
He is a much more settled in galloper now and impressively the last seven times he has contested poly races it has been a first or a second each time.
Flying Fulton is not a stayer but can get away with a middle distance and the 1700m tonight does fit nicely within his performance parameters.
Ten times in Singapore he has contested races from 1700m up to 2200m with the results two wins (at G3 and an Open Handicap) and four placings (one each at G2 and G3 plus two in Open Handicaps) but also contained in there is a pair of fourths at G1.
The apprentice Rizuan Shafiq gets the ride and normally in Group racing you want the most experienced atop but tonight he has earned the mount.
Seven times aboard for a win and three placings is solid with the victory coming on the poly but last start showed Walker why he would leave Shafiq atop.
A huge finish from the back for second in the G2 E W Barker Trophy (1400m) on turf behind the impressive winner What Now (it had 6.5kg less) was proof he could cope with the pressure.
I see Shafiq going forward this evening from a good draw and then being in a position to make it a class contest a fair way out to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Some of his best runs have been when either leading or keeping the close to the pace then applying the blowtorch across the top.
A relevant race result for mine that is a trustable template for the feature tonight in terms of trip and track texture would be the Flying Fulton decimation in July this year of the Yew Tee Classic over 1800m.
He raced close in the poly feature under 58kg before powering clear to win by three and a half lengths over Black Ice.
Most if not all the big race players at a mile or further in Singapore are having a break until next year and catching up on some extra snooze and tucker time.
It is a case of the feature this evening being targeted by a realistic Walker and in Flying Fulton he has the right durable runner.
The Portuguese word for two hundred is duzentos and Joao Moreira racked up that unthinkable number last Sunday in the final race of the meeting.
It is as devastating an achievement of digits likely ever reached in a Singapore racing season with the magic milestone maker not finished yet.
Moreira does not break records he shatters them and what he will end up with in a couple of weeks could be worthy of a tattoo!
He rides Nandowra tonight and the Michael Freedman trained runner has won five times on the poly that includes a 1700m success.
Moreira has been atop Nandowra three times for two wins (at 1700m and 1800m) and a second so he can get the best out of son of Savabeel.
I think it is significant that in the wins he has raced in or on lead and the placing came from the trail.
Gate two at 56kg and a tongue tie applied assures he is a win chance and Freedman will take them anyway he can with the training premiership becoming more gripping as each meeting passes.
It was hard to miss the last start running on effort for fifth by Sakima in the G1 Longines Singapore Gold Cup (2200m) that was won by the superstar mare Better Life.
Sakima carried 51.5kg (he was 1kg overweight) and the former Malaysian galloper is a five-time winner there including once at G1 over 2400m on all weather in the Perak Derby Division.
His seven starts in Singapore have returned a single placing so far but it did come at 1800m albeit on turf though it shows that middle distance or more is his strike zone.
I thought his effort in the G1 Raffles Cup (1800m) under 58kg prior to the Gold Cup was not too bad either.
The G3 this evening at 55kg looks an ideal late in the year target for good stakemoney.
Lizarre was an honest eighth last start in the G1 Longines Singapore Gold Cup and as a proven poly performer (three starts for a win and two placings) you must include him in the multiples at 53kg.
The blinkers applied is a key fact and Barend Vorster atop gives me confidence.
Vorster rode Lizarre at his first six starts in Kranji for two wins and four seconds so he has an enviable record to protect.
Lizarre was second in the G3 New Year Cup over 1900m on the poly at the start of this year and the easy winner was of course Flying Fulton, which carried 1.5kg more.
Tonight we see Lizarre get an enticing 5kg from the main fancy and that should attract some heavy hitting bettors like a magnet.
Two other runners deserve special mention in Mitre Peak and Dujardin.
Mitre Peak last start led and kept the pace constant enough in the G1 Longines Singapore Gold Cup and his weakening to 10th was not as bad as it may read.
His stablemate Better Life won the feature event and in a run on finish that saw those in or near the pace weaken, it was an even better effort by Mitre Peak in hindsight.
Alan Munro is in sublime form of late and after the win on Better Life he knows he is on a superstar and if a book opened up now on the 2013 Emirates Singapore Derby she would be odds on.
Munro won the English and Irish Derby atop Generous in 1991, the same year the Soviet Union ended and the first Briton in space (a female) happened so it has been a generation between drinks.
Tonight he rides Mitre Peak for trainer Hideyuki Takaoka and this is turning out to be a formidable pairing plus he has won on the galloper before.
Takaoka is a master trainer and Mitre Peak is a three-time poly winner and at 1700m is four starts for two wins and as many placings.
Dujardin from the Laurie Laxon stable, which is right in the premiership brawl for 2012, has raced three times on the poly for two wins and a close second.
Danny Beasley rides the first time blinkered Dujardin and he has a good record to protect atop the gelding as well.
He has been aboard five times for three wins and two placings.
Dujardin in nine starts since coming to Singapore has never finished worse than fifth and is a noted third up striker (three runs in this state for two wins).
After two runs back from a mini break that has seen a win and a good third, he will come in tonight stepping up to distance range that suits.
The time Dujardin finished fifth came in the Derby so he is a quality performer as well and Laxon, when he applies eyewear for the first time on a galloper, has had this ace up the sleeve for the right moment.
Flying Fulton can put these away at his beloved G3 class while Nandowra and Moreira are a must include match.
Lizarre is the weight special while hard to leave out Dujardin and the each way overs play is Mitre Peak.
Enjoy the feature race named after the first international winner from Singapore in Colonial Chief, which won the 1989 Hong Kong Cup when digging deep the closing stages to prevail for trainer Ivan Allan and rider (now champion trainer in Hong Kong) in Tony Cruz.