3 minute read

The feature field tonight at Kranji has just seven runners and Steve Burridge has three of them but he is no sure thing to win the fifth race on the card.

Burridge is currently third equal in the Singapore trainers premiership sharing that with Leslie Khoo.

He is a dozen wins behind the Pat Shaw juggernaut, so defending his title from last year looks unlikely but he can still catch and pass Laurie Laxon for second.

Last year saw Burridge win easily over Laxon and Shaw was third, so we could well see the same trifecta but in a different order.

The S$95K Benchmark 97 over 1400m on the turf tonight is an intriguing little field because of the distance but also because three apprentices will rumble against four senior professionals.

What are the odds a trainer could have three out of seven in a field and come up with barriers one, two and three?

Well the Burridge barrier blessing has been done and remarkably we see Apache Crown drawn the ace, Happy Everybody the deuce and Shaolin Solider the three-hole.

Everything in the field bar Macau has won at the 1400m and on the turf, so that youngest runner looks to be at a disadvantage but do not leave him out as I discuss later.

Only two of the field has won in their last five starts and one is Macau and the other Tenzing, which resumes after a bleeding attack suffered in the G1 Singapore Derby.

So the seven assembled are a potpourri for punters to peruse and then weed out to find the winner.

Apache Crown with the inside barrier and a 3kg claim looks the best for Burridge but this gelding has only won twice in Singapore from fifteen starts and both came over 1200m on the polytrack.

He has won a further six races elsewhere but just once at 1400m.

So he does like to be on the dais at Kranji just not that often on the top step.

Shaolin Soldier is the next best Burridge chance and five of his six wins have come at Kranji, with the gelding have scored twice at 1400m.

However he won over 1400m as a maiden in Australia and his last win came in July on the long course turf at Kranji under 57kg with Joao Moreira atop.

That was in a weaker grade to what he meets here and although racing okay of late there is that niggling query about him at this level.

Happy Everybody resumes and the entire is yet to pay a dividend in this state, so even though he looks the class act a closer look at his 1400m record is worrying.

One win at the trip from twenty-five attempts plus the last time he won on the turf was in April last year.

The trio of Burridge runners are all chances but you would not say one of them absolutely stood above the rest of the field as a good thing at 1400m on the turf.

Ten Ten Lai with a full 4kg claim will be carrying a postage stamp and this tough horse either uncontrollably leads and carves out draining sectionals or misses away and makes a super recovery.

His last start effort was good and of his five career wins we find four of them have come at the 1400m on the turf.

He has not won however since January and that came on the poly over 1200m.

So that leaves us with Moreira having a first ever ride on Just A Man, which is a good thing looking at his strike rate at him doing that, along with Barend Vorster on Macau and Saimee Jumaat aboard Tenzing.

Just A Man has won or placed in half his starts and is a dual 1400m winner and a four-timer on turf.

His last win came at 1400m in April over a Benchmark 89, where he carried just 50.5kg and interestingly Apache Crown with 1.5kg more was nearly six lengths behind him at the post in eighth place.

Just A Man will get 3.5kg from Apache Crown (if Moreira can get down to 51kg) and considering that rival has not won a race since it makes the gap attractive.

Tenzing has the ability to put these away but has never done anything fresh before though the first run back from a bleed is often a ripper.

It is hard to leave out a quality sort and Tenzing has many more wins if he stays happy and healthy.

And so we come back to the baby of the field and the non-turf winner and yet to try 1400m entrant in Macau, which is a realistic chance after considering the above facts, figures and failures.

He can run home like the 1400m will not be an issue and his sire Fastnet Rock is absolutely booming at the moment leaving classic mile winners and even a star filly up to a middle distance.

Barend Vorster being booked to ride the Mark Walker four-year-old is what catches the eye, as his 3kg claiming apprentice is aboard Apache Crown in the race.

Three of the four wins by Macau in Singapore have been for Shafiq but I see Vorster, a natural lightweight and super judge of pace, to be a plus tonight.

Also third up we find Macau has a win and a placing too his name, so I do see him as a must include and the possible value.

You cannot say he will not run the 1400m as is yet to attempt it.

Enjoy what is a rather flummoxing fifth race on the card.