3 minute read

There was just the sole meeting held in Singapore last weekend with the Mark Walker trained Riedel the highest rated victor on Friday night.

Successful in turning the tables on his stablemate Smileswithhiseyes having only been narrowly beaten two back, the son of Saperavi proved too good dropping back to the mile.

In what proved a very pleasant affair for Mark Walker having quinellad the race, Riedel benefitted from a beautiful ride by Shafiq Rizuan after he again looked to ride the four-year-old quietly from the wide draw.

Settling at the rear in the early stages, Riedel successfully overcame the slow tempo when making a long sustained run to sweep around the field and swamp his stablemate in the shadows of the post.

Travelling well surrounding the turn for home, he always appeared set to fight out the finish however given the slow tempo, the questioned remained whether he could in fact run down his rivals in the straight.

Displaying a good turn of foot at the 300m mark, Riedel was successful in recording some of the quickest closing sectionals of the night and brought up his fourth career victory in the process.

Successful in recording a Timeform figure just shy of his career peak, Riedel is now proven to be racing in career best form since joining Mark Walker's stable and given the way he impressively closed off his latest effort more does appear in store.

Much the same can be said about Smilewithhiseyes given he too recorded near career peak figures on Friday night and is expected to improve further when stepping up in trip.

His performance on the weekend was rated equal to his victory two back and if placed in similar company at his next outing he does appear hard to beat.

The Laurie Laxon trained Double Star was back to his career best on Friday night when working home strongly to salute in the fifth event.

While not disgraced in recent outings he was sent out one of the lesser favoured runners but a well timed run from Rueven Ravindra saw him return to the winner's stall.

Successful in following up on his solid performance two back behind the promising Accomplished the son of Ishiguru fought hard right to the line to hold off a late charge from the fast finishing Soon Yi.

Although jumping away well from the outside stall, Ravindra was still forced to sit wide on Double Star but kept him comfortable in-running just off midfield.

Travelling up well four and five wide rounding the turn for home, Double Star quickly let down impressively in the centre of the track tackling the leaders inside the 300m before sticking on strongly to score narrowly on the line.

Although the margin wasn't flattering his performance to sit wide throughout was very impressive and further highlighted his consistency this time in.

In seven starts this time in his ratings have fluctuated little despite only proving successful in two attempts.

His performance on Friday night recorded a Timeform rating of 76 which sits just four pounds above his average this time in.

More notably if you take out his poor performance third up when finishing well back behind Desert Fox, his average performance this time in has been 74.

Remarkable consistency given he has been up since early December last year and is full credit to his trainer Laurie Laxon.

Adding to that his performance was also the quickest recorded on the night and while this is expected given it was one of the highest rating races of the night, he was still close to two lengths quicker than anything else.

Given his consistency this time in, he is likely to hold his form at his next start and if placed in suitable company he does appear a strong winning hope.