3 minute read
The sixth race on the card has six runners and all of them have ability, upside and should win several more races in Singapore.
The small field for the S$75K Progress over 1400m on the turf long course E track is bristling with form and contains five either three or four-year olds plus a newcomer five-year-old from Australia.
The three combatants slugging it out for the prestigious 2012 training premiership are all involved namely Michael Freedman, Steve Burridge and Laurie Laxon.
A countdown clock has started for the Joao Moreira double ton, where what was thought impossible and sheer fanciful thinking will become reality bar something unforeseen.
All the ingredients are crammed into one powder keg Progress event and this is like an early fireworks display.
The most gifted runner is Shuttle Man and but for a health issue this is an open class galloper as he has that long languid stride of a topliner.
He could be anything and is lethal second up so forgive his resumption flop when back on the inner at 1200m and not liking the wet ground (his two misses have come on slow footing).
Shuttle Man has in a second up state won and crushed a then in form Dragon Spirit and the other time was G1 placed behind Super Easy in the Singapore Guineas (1600m).
When you consider he beat home into fourth the now superstar mare Better Life in the Guineas it puts some perspective on how good a fit and well Shuttle Man really is.
In fact ShuttleMan has beaten Better Life twice, as at his third start he just beat her in a tight finish over a mile on the turf.
He was in the Guineas over three and a half lengths ahead of a rival again today in City Lad (it finished seventh) and got 4kg form it while today will receive 1.5kg.
I also feel the weight of Shuttle Man resuming was about 15kg above where his best form is found and even with some filling out in the interim, when he is lean and mean the bettors glean.
It is telling that Stephen Baster, who rode Shuttle Man for the Burridge stable resuming, will stay with Devil’s Cut for that team today.
John Powell gets atop Shuttle Man and Baster is going for a hattrick aboard Devil’s Cut, so just where he stands healthwise both short term and long term is an unknown for the son of Taiki Shuttle.
Moreira will stay with the exciting three-year-old from the Leticia Dragon yard in Rising Empire and this son of Dehere looks untapped.
It has won three races and Moreira has a perfect three-for-three atop.
The last start win at 1400m was a five length demolishing of Tom, which is a handy sort and has since won easily (beat City Lad a runner today and more form reference linkage) and finished second to the impressive Feisty Leo.
He will be hard to run down at 52kg in the home straight and his recent trial second behind Al’s Knight showed the gelding is still in sublime shape.
How can City Lad give Rising Empire 6kg today when he could not beat it with 3kg more last start?
Devil’s Cut is tackling 1400m for the first time but he should be unbeaten in three starts and is just going from strength to strength.
This is his biggest test by far and also at 55kg he is close to some proven big hitters let alone having to give Rising Empire a 3kg buffer.
City Lad seems to copping form cuffs left, right and centre from me and while he is in solid enough form it is hard to see him under 58kg today winning.
He can place at best but with clear topweight, after the claim on Natural Nice, but is so poorly situated and the weights rarely lie.
Natural Nice with a 2kg claim down to 56kg is a chance as all his wins have come on the turf and at 1400m.
He can do work and still kick hard plus is so consistent it is not funny.
The three wins and five placings in fifteen starts by Natural Nice also mask the fact he has been top five in every start bar one and that was a sixth.
Failure or flopping is not an option for Natural Nice and Laxon knows he has a runner that trainers adore as he puts in every single time and is therefore a racehorse through and through.
I have mentioned five of the six runners in the field and it looks like Rising Empire is unbeatable at the weights and Shuttle Man is the best horse but as a roarer earlier in the year you worry.
City Lad is poorly in at the weights and it is impossible to leave out Natural Nice, while Devil’s Cut is headed places but this looks a tough school to score a hattrick in.
It leaves just one more runner in Light Brigade and punters could well charge into this with betting bayonets fixed.
He will be having his first Singapore outing since joining the Freedman stable and he has given the five-year-old gelded son of Redoute’s Choice two trials.
I have not minded either effort behind Shuttle Man early last month and a third later in October behind The Hustler.
Baster rode the import in each trial and Alan Munro, who is riding with great British pride at the moment, will be the pilot today.
A tip from Munro for the 2012 Melbourne Cup would be advice bettors should heed as he is an international rider and knows the form.
Freedman will be taking over a galloper that Gai Waterhouse and Peter Moody have trained in the past, so he is taking over from premiership winners.
I wonder if that is an omen for him in 2012 in Singapore!
Light Brigade cost A$1.4 million as a yearling and won four trials in a row and his first two starts, so defeat was foreign to him as a younger galloper.
He is still a two-win horse but has a G1 placing in the Royal Randwick Guineas (1600) behind Ilovethiscity and Skilled.
This natural leader or on pacer has also a fourth at G1 as a three-year-old in the Rosehill Guineas (2000m) but he is a sprinter/miler and one would think that approach is adopted in Singapore.
Last spring he finished a close runner up in the G3 Cameron Handicap (1500m) at Newcastle when defeated by Raspberries, which has won at G3 and Listed level and been G2 placed in nine starts since.
Light Brigade has enough ability to be a threat today but a couple of facts need to be answered and the first one and most important is can he pay a dividend right-handed?
The owners are called Ace-In-The-Hole Stable and lets hope they are cool card players with a winning hand.
Whether the horse can return to his best form is also an unknown at this stage and perhaps he may have been better clockwise at Hong Kong but stakemoney is very good at Kranji.
Team Freedman do not get many imports wrong and boisterous owners are a welcome addition for many of their runners.
Rising Empire may well hold a flush today with the Dragon and Moreira pairing so at the weights it will take some routine hand to topple them.
Natural Nice is a trifecta hope and Shuttle Man if able to get full oxygen into his lungs would just obliterate these.
A blinkered Light Brigade adds some interest into the race too.
Enjoy what looks to be six intriguing stories wrapped up into one feature race.
