3 minute read
Bettors like the champion riding for the champion stable in a feature race at Kranji and this evening you get the perfect punting storm of Joao Moreira atop for Laurie Laxon.
Moreira will ride Nice Natural in Race Seven and freshened up a notch it looks the winner from gate three.
The main race on the card is a S$75K Class Three on the long course C turf track over 1200m and the strathayr statistics are the important ones to look at.
Nice Natural is a very consistent galloper and in fact the now four-year-old has an intriguing record to protect this evening.
He has won three races in Singapore (all on turf) and placed six times from seventeen starts but his other eight runs does see him never having finished worse than sixth lifetime.
There are two fourths, four fourths and two sixths in his record so he simply will always give bettors a run for their money and you cannot ask for much more.
No surprise that Moreira has been the rider for all the three wins on the son of Towkay and I do see a fourth on the wagering radar tonight.
Nice Natural cannot have every single factor in his favour but is very close though it will be the 1200m that is an actual query.
He is a 1400m specialist and yet to place at 1200m in two attempts but is a stronger horse now and freshened up a tad will be fine.
Wins on yielding and slow conditions mean the weather is irrelevant for Nice Natural and a measure of what he can do in Class Three is best shown by a third three starts ago in the grade.
The winner of the race was Feisty Leo (Moreira rode it) from Tom and since that race this pair have done well themselves.
Feisty Leo has since finished a close second in a Kranji Stakes B and then finished runner up in the rich Magic Millions at Penang in Malaysia behind the gifted Mr Big.
Tom has raced three more times since and Moreira has been atop each time with a Class Three placing then win coming at the last two outings.
Everything points to the premiership winning pair scoring tonight and Nice Natural will tick every check list for bettors that matters.
The danger if there is one will be the lightly tried Indicio for the Stephen Gray stable and Alan Munro staying atop is a plus for mine.
He rode it last start into a solid fourth at his first time aboard and the four-year-old will have given him a good feel and that a win was imminent.
The draw of nine is not a concern as this horse needs room to move and of his three wins to date two have come from awkward barriers (eight and ten) and the other came from gate five.
Indicio has won third up and at 51kg is rather well situated being an already G3 placed galloper to Super Easy and Speedy Cat (either of those runners would be at $1.01) if they ran in the race tonight.
Viva Panata has not run on the turf since 2010 but in the times he has been on it the record is sound with ten starts for two wins and five placings.
His three misses contain a fourth and a fifth in Kranji Stakes C so this Class Three at 54kg after a claim does look suitable.
You can sort of tell if Viva Panata is in for one of his good days/nights as he is best forcing the issue or sitting handy wide because the gelding is tough and has won seven races to show so.
His last start you can forget completely in a Benchmark 74 as he was eased back from the start but expect a different approach here.
J L Li (Kian Lim) gets back on and he has won twice twice and placed four times on the durable sprinter.
I am very keen on Nice Natural to win and the massive danger is Indicio so take the quinella too as a smart saver.
If you want the one to bolster the multiples that is an eachway hope then Viva Panata is your runner.
Enjoy the premiership pairing.
