Quadcopter ready for the big league
The best from the trials held on Tuesday morning
He's come a long way.
From a lowly 53-point rater in June 2019, Quadcopter has risen through the ranks and now sits on 79 points - and rising.
Granted, he's no "spring chicken". He raced 20 times. But on 11 occasions he's finished among the top three - winning five times.
And he's only five, so there's still a ton of racing left in him and, as if to remind the forgetful that he's still around, Quadcopter won a good trial on Tuesday morning.
Ridden by Marc Lerner, Quadcopter was off in a jiffy but quickly surrendered the lead to Matthew Kellady's mount, Star Of Jupiter.
That was the order - though narrowly - when they negotiated the 600m mark and when the field fanned out for that run home, Star Of Jupiter looked to have had the jump on Quadcopter.
Little did we realise that Lerner was riding with the "hand brake" still in the "engaged" mode.
A furlong out and the fun began.
Lerner asked his mount for an effort and Quadcopter was more than willing to oblige.
Taking the bit, the son of Zoustar raced to the front and, under his own steam, he pulled away, putting daylight between himself and the chasing pack.
He went on to score by three lengths from Kellady's mount with Chicago Star finishing off the trial rather stylishly to take third.
But it was all about Quadcopter. Hardly asked to raise his game, he almost broke the one-minute mark - clocking, instead, 60.04sec for the 1,000m.
Trained by Hideyuki Takaoka, Quadcopter is a last-start winner, having taken the goodies in a 1,400m race in late November.
For one who is right at home on grass - his five wins has all been on the turf - Quadcopter's win on the Polytrack on Tuesday morning was worth taking note of.
Also showing off on Tuesday morning was, well, a horse we know as Tuesday.
Having a stall's test - which he passed with flying colours - the three-year-old was another runaway winner.
Ridden by Louis-Philippe Beuzelin, it was at the top of the straight that he elbowed Grand Fighter out of the lead and, while they did race together for some distance, the momentum was always with Tuesday.
With 150m to the finish, Beuzelin lit the burners and Tuesday took off. Grand Fighter seemed stranded as Tuesday ran right away.
He would eventually win by almost five lengths and in a time of 60.16sec.
A rising star in champion trainer Michael Clements' yard, Tuesday won once and finished second once in three career starts.
The only blemish was when he took fourth at his last start.
Then again, there were excuses.
Tuesday raced wide for some distance and, according to Beuzelin, the horse could not finish off the race as strongly as expected.
Tuesday is better than that and it could pay to keep tabs on his progress.
For sure, he is going to win more races.
TRIAL 1
1 Cassius
2 Dimesso (I Saifudin)
3 Whiz Fizz (JP van der Merwe)
4 Beyond Compared (F Yusoff)
5 Shylock (O Chavez)
6 Our Lady Boss
Margins and time: Shd, ½, 1½, 1¼, 2¾ (1min 1.98 sec)
TRIAL 2
1 Tuesday (L Beuzelin)
2 Grand Fighter (R Maia)
3 Circuit Flyer (Chavez)
4 My Horse (CC Wong)
5 Lim's Rhythm (S John)
6 Auspicious Day (N Zyrul)
7 Lim's Moreready
Margins and time: 4¾, 1¾, nk, 5½, 1½, ½ (1:00.16)
TRIAL 3
1 Quadcopter (M Lerner)
2 Star Of Jupiter (M Kellady)
3 Chicago Star
4 Super Posh (Yusoff)
5 Salamence (T Rehaizat)
6 Harbour Approach (S Shafrizal)
7 Inherit (K Hakim)
8 Salvador (Wong)
Margins and time: 3, 3, ¾, ¾, 3, 4, 8¾ (1:00.04)
TRIAL 4
1 Sage (Wong)
2 Golden Teak (Yusoff)
3 Paletas (Beuzelin)
4 Terrific
5 Star Empire (Chavez)
6 Lim's Unique
Margins and time: 4, hd, 1, 5½, 1¼ (1:00.94)
TRIAL 5
1 Real Efecto (John)
2 Make U Famous (Chavez)
3 Atlantean (I Saifudin)
4 Seson
5 Our Secret Weapon (PH Seow)
6 Nineteen Glory
7 Winning Monster (Wong)
8 Take A Chance
Margins and time: 1, ½, 1¾, 1¼, 2½, ½, 8½ (1:00.93)
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