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Exceed Express’s rousing eight-length barrier trial win on Tuesday was an excellent tune-up ahead of his run in the $80,000 Class 3 race over 1200m on Sunday, but barrier No 16 was a wet blanket the Laurie Laxon camp could have done without.

Assistant-trainer Shane Ellis could not have been happier with the way the Exceed And Excel five-year-old had come on since his knee operation last year.

After a first-up fourth to Sun Pioneer in a Kranji Stakes C race over 1000m on January 8, the speedball has been bucking his brands off in the last week or so, which was even more evident when he let rip at his barrier trial on Tuesday.

Ellis did tell jockey Glen Boss to give Exceed Express a good blowout as he gave him a leg-up, and the Australian certainly followed the instructions to the letter from the get-go. Springing out of the gates two lengths clear, the speedy customer went on to scorch up the Polytrack with a growing lead, which he maintained all the way to the wire.

“I told Bossy to give him a bit of a push just to bring him on for Sunday’s race,” said Ellis.

“Bossy was very happy with his trial, and said it was just perfect, but then, we drew 16 which is very disappointing.

“He’s a speed horse and needs to be up there. He has enough gate speed to go forward, but there are quite a few speedy horses inside him as well.

“I would also have been more confident if it was a Polytrack race. He gets around pretty good on Polytrack.

“But he has got to run. There aren’t many races around for him.”

Ellis, who has been helming the yard since Laxon went to New Zealand for the Karaka Yearling Sale, said that the Lai Voon Wai-owned gelding did get off to a great start at his first prep before a knee injury threw a spanner in the works.

“He’s got his fair share of ability and luckily, he has come back good after his knee operation,” said Ellis.

“He had one run back and he went quite good. He led them up and only got tired in the last 100m.”

Since his debut win in a Restricted Maiden race over 1000m at Kranji in May 2014, Exceed Express has seldom disappointed, going on to add three more wins between 1100m and 1200m.

He was a little more hard-pushed to find the line when he was tossed against better horses like My Lucky Strike, Olympic Anthem and Raise No Doubt. Laxon then allowed him to fill out further as a four-year-old but that campaign was shortlived.

He came out for his comeback on June 5, 2016, but after setting the pace, knocked up badly to run last. Scans later revealed he had hurt his knee, hence the dismal performance.

“We’ve given him all the time he needed to get over that knee setback, and his trial yesterday showed he was on the right track,” said Ellis.

“But the wide gate makes things trickier now. And he’s also running against some very good horses.

“I can only hope he runs well. It will keep Laurie happy back in New Zealand.”

Laxon, who won his ninth title in 2014, but has lost the crown to Mark Walker and Alwin Tan in the last two years, has yet again had a bit of a slow start to the 2017 campaign, with only five wins under the belt thus far, the latest being Lake Huka on Sunday.