3 minute read

Trainer Cliff Brown continued his stranglehold over Group 1 racing in Singapore after emerging stayer Laughing Gravy took out the Queen Elizabeth II Cup.

Of the three Group 1 races held in Singapore this season Brown has won all three — Lion City Cup with Zac Spirit and the Singapore Guineas with rising star Debt Collector.

While both of the above were impressive in their respective events, the improvement Laughing Gravy has displayed is nothing short of remarkable.

Quite a rare occurrence to see a horse make such large rating spikes, Laughing Gravy is clearly racing in great heart and Brown has obviously found the key to his five-year-old.

A dominant Kranji Stakes A victor in the lead up to the Group 1 feature, many questioned how he would fair in the stronger company.

Racing under weight-for-age conditions for the first time, Laughing Gravy faced easily his sternest test rising 8.5kg on his last start win.

Of the nine rivals he lined up against, Laughing Gravy would meet One Rar(4kg), Fastnet Dragon (7kg), Perfect P (7kg), Quechua (10kg) and Cooptado (7kg) considerably worse off at the weights but still proved supreme.

Ridden by Glen Boss, Laughing Gravy landed in a lovely spot, settled third with the Desmond Koh trained Order Of The Sun setting the tempo.

Edged forward to sit second passing the 800m, Laughing Gravy travelled well and quickly took over on straightening.

Displaying a good turn of foot he quickly drew four lengths clear with his rivals labouring in behind.

Fastnet Dragon loomed briefly but failed to really finish it off with Cooptado and Bourbon Goldman sticking on fairly to fill the minor placings.

His seventh win from 18 starts Laughing Gravy returned a clear new career peak and capped off what truly has been a sensational training performance.

A modest Kranji Stakes C victor prior to break, Laughing Gravy has proven a revelation since tried beyond a mile.

Successful in notching up his fourth straight win on Sunday, Laughing Gravy has improved 24 pounds since saluting fourth up.

While visually the race appeared to be run to suit the front-runners, however in truth every horse was given their chance.

Laughing Gravy recorded the second fastest last 800m with both Perfect P and Quechua hidden runs in the feature.

Despite finishing fifth and sixth respectively their closing sectionals were quite strong but simply conceded Laughing Gravy too big a start.

Laughing Gravy averaged 11.98 second 200m sections for his last 1600m and averaged 11.79 second 200m sections for his last 800m — a strong staying performance.

Overall Laughing Gravy was marked a length inside standard and now the big question remains, where to next?

When handicapping horses one will always like to see them repeat/confirm that level of performance before locking it away for future punting endeavours.

While we use many different measures to reach a conclusion there is no substitute for raceday performance.

Off the back of his latest effort Laughing Gravy ranks as one of Singapore's leading stayers and creates plenty of interest for his next outing.

He continued his upwards rating spiral and gone are the days of competing in Kranji Stakes C company.

His rivals had few/if any excuses on Sunday and given Laughing Gravy beat them at set-weights and ran the time to back it up, the performance was no fluke.