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Star galloper Better Than Ever returned to his top in taking out the Group 1 $500,000 Panasonic Kranji Mile over 1600m on Sunday.
Winless in five outings since his win in the Group 3 Polytrack Mile Championship in March, Better Than Ever was sent out the $12 punter's elect to claim his second successive Kranji Mile.
Ridden by his regular partner Saimee Jumaat, Better Than Ever recorded a head victory over Clear For Action (Danny Beasley) with Waikato (Joao Moreira) two lengths away third.
He stopped the clock at 1 min 35.6 secs for the 1600m journey.
Just as he did 12 months previous, Better Than Ever made a late lunge to claim his second Kranji Mile.
This time it was to get back into winning form whereas 12 months previously it was to keep his unbeaten run going which he took to 11 with the victory.
Saimee had Better Than Ever settled in sixth position in the run. A solid pace was set with Golden Number (Saifudin Ismail) leading over Captain Obvious (Benny Woodworth) with Jamil Malik (Barend Vorster) and Flying Fulton (Vlad Duric) in close attendance.
Soon after turning for home Woodworth shot to the front aboard Captain Obvious and opened up a two length lead before he was grabbed by Flying Fulton and it looked for a fleeting moment that he would land his second feature win.
But then it turned into a race for the swoopers. Clear For Action which had settled towards the tail of the field made his run out wide while Better Than Ever was weaving his way through the pack.
Waikato and Trafalgar Legacy (Olivier Placais) also both ran on strongly but were no match for the first two home, two lengths astern.
For trainer Laurie Laxon it was his fourth consecutive win in the Kranji Mile which is the first leg of the Singapore Triple Crown Series.
He took the 2008 running with Top Spin before his own galloper Waikato took the race in 2009. Better Than Ever has added Laxon's name to the Trophy board in the last two years.
Laxon said he had never lost faith in his champion that won at his first 12 starts before finding the 2010 Group 1 Longines Singapore Gold Cup beyond him, finishing 14th behind Risky Business.
He added that Better Than Ever would now head to the second leg of the Singapore Triple Crown Series, the Group 1 $500,000 Raffles Cup over 1800m, but would bypass the final leg, the Singapore Gold Cup, on November 13.
“It was a good gutsy win today,” said Laxon. “A lot like last year.
“He'll go to the Raffles Cup and he showed today the 1800m won't be any problem for him.
“I was never really concerned that he had appeared to lose form. To my mind he had still been running well.
“He finished second in the three legs of the Four-Year-Old Challenge, so he hadn't been racing all that badly.
“He's a sound horse and ideally suited under the weight-for-age conditions and it's great to have him back in winning form again.”
Saimee said he found himself in a great position in the run and the race panned out almost as he expected.
“There was good speed on up front and I knew Golden Number and Captain Obvious would be running along,” said Saimee.
I knew Vlad on Flying Fulton from his draw would not want to be too far away, but the one that did surprise me a little was Jamal Malik. I thought he would be back a bit further.
“I was happy to be following Vlad and when we got into the straight I thought he might have taken me a bit further into the race.
“But he dropped off with about 200m to run and then I had to get clear and chase hard.
“He showed his true courage today. I thought at the 100m he was going to finish third, but like he did last year when he grabbed Waikato, he dug really deep and got there in the end.
“I really like the way he dug deep today. It's great to have him back.”
A New Zealand-bred five-year-old by French Deputy from Songfest, Better Than Ever has now won 15 of his 21 career starts and took his prizemoney past the $2.5 million mark for the Jupiter Stable.
Jockey Danny Beasley was ruing the extreme outside barrier draw aboard runner-up Clear For Action which was having just his eighth race start.
“If we had drawn a gate and been running in sixth position instead of being second last and having to come around them I'm sure it would have been a different result,” said Beasley.
“He's run super the horse, it's just unfortunate we had to bump into the champ on a day he decided to return to his winning form.”