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Trainer Theo Kieser is pinning his hopes on a three-pronged attack to accomplish a twofold mission at Friday’s Polytrack meeting – end the drought and uphold the “Kaiser” legacy.

The only member in the 26-strong Kranji training ranks not to have opened his account in the 2013 season, Kieser is aiming three runners at the $90,000 Magic Millions Rocket Man Stakes (1000m), the first Leg of this year’s Singapore Golden Horseshoe series. He has no other runners on Friday night and has only one runner on Sunday, stalwart sprinter Dragon Spirit who is resuming from a five-month break.

Mexborough Boy (x Keep The Faith), Rappor (x Zizou) and Black Fiery (x Tale Of The Cat) are the three two-year-olds who will carry the flag for the South African handler in the Rocket Man Stakes while current leading trainer Mark Walker saddles two runners, Dr Octopus and Q Nine Star and local trainers Tan Hor Khoon and Alvin Tan will be represented by Easy Money and Macau Treasure respectively.

By gang-tackling the juvenile event with close to half of the field, Kieser is not only hoping to shed his unenviable record of zero win from 42 starters, but at the same time live up to his reputation as Kranji’s resident “king of the kids”.

Kieser struck a remarkable affinity with two-year-olds at his sophomore season of training in 2011. Maybe it was a strange coincidence their names sounded so identical, but by winning two of the seven (now six) Legs of the first edition of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe races sponsored by Aushorse, Inglis, Magic Millions and IRT, Kaiser, who was only second-best to eventual juvenile champion Mr Big, became Kieser’s first “baby” to set the trend.

Though the cohort of 2012 made up of Griffin (won the first Leg as well), Zeus Thunder and Yin Jie filled Kieser’s trophy cabinet with more “Golden Horseshoes”, they were nowhere as good as Kaiser. But they have established a pattern which Kieser finds himself almost compelled to perpetuate for as long as he can.

But whether the pressure is mounting on him ahead of this weekend, Kieser, who just returned from the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale on Thursday morning, said he was at peace with himself, regardless of the outcome by Friday or Sunday.

“I’m not worried about being the only trainer to not have won yet,” said the 49-year-old horseman. “I know what I’m doing and if you look at my second-highest strike rate of 13% from last year (17th on 29 wins from only 223 runners), you would know my stable is going through a transition stage.

“More than half of my string has been replaced and we knew all along we would be facing a waiting period this season. It got frustrating at times, but what can you do?

“The most important to me is my owners are very understanding and have not been putting any pressure on me at all. If anything, it’s just me putting pressure on myself because I would of course wish to get my first win sooner rather than later.”

Kieser is aware all eyes will be on his trio in Race 2 on Friday and expectations of one of them making it a perfect score of three from three for the yard will be high, but as much as he would like that to eventuate, his main objective is to see them run up to their ability.

“They’re all going good. Mexborough Boy probably had the best preparation as he was the first to come up to the yard, but they’re all going into their first race fit and ready,” said Kieser who has booked Danny Beasley, Soo Khoon Beng and Barend Vorster for Mexborough Lad, Rappor and Black Fiery respectively.

“It really all depends on how they will cope with it mentally. They’re only babies and I don’t know how they will take the noise and the lights in the evening.

“Rappor is probably the most sensible and relaxed of the three, but in saying this, he is also the laziest, and that’s why he needed a second trial to get him fitter. KB (Soo) kept saying ‘this horse is so lazy!’ after he jumped off.

“Black Fiery was drawn wide at his last trial and the last 100m found him out. He can be slow out of the gates too, but he’s very quick and hopefully he can catch up.

“Mark’s horse Dr Octopus is to me the horse they will have to beat, but whatever they do, that race will bring them on.”

Should none of them salute in the juvenile feature, Kieser has one more bullet to exhaust on Sunday in his bid to break the duck – Dragon Spirit.

From only 14 runs, the Due Sasso four-year-old boasts a proud record of four wins (all on Polytrack) between 1000m and 1200m, but incidentally has never scored over 1100m, the trip of his comeback race, the $95,000 Open Benchmark 89 race in which he will be ridden by regular partner Beasley.

“Dragon Spirit was going well, but then he was tried with blinkers in a 1000m race, and he ran about. There was something wrong obviously,” said Kieser.

“We took them off at his next run, and he ran bad again. It wasn't the wet track; I suspected he bled, but when we scoped him, we found nothing wrong.

“I gave him a break instead and he seems to have come back in good shape. He has trialled very well and I hope he can bounce back to form on Sunday.”

Kieser is already looking beyond this weekend of racing to get his operation back on track, and unsurprisingly two-year-olds figure prominently on his battle plan.

“I currently have 17 two-year-olds and six or seven are ready to race by the end of this month,” said Kieser who is already stocking up for next year’s nursery as he also bought four yearlings during his six days spent at Oaklands Junction in Victoria.

“Two of them (Rikioh - 4th - and Neutrinos - 5th) trialled this morning and did a pretty good job. I told my B-trainer (Mahadi Taib) both needed the trial and to give them a testing trial to get them to the desired fitness level.

“They will both benefit from that run and will be contenders for the second Leg of the series (Inglis Australian Easter Sale Stakes) in two weeks’ time (March 24).”