Red Ocean looks too deep for his rivals
Baertschiger-trained back-to-back winner has trained on further and faces only eight beatable rivals for his hat-trick bid
The evidence is there for all to see - Red Ocean has hit a bright patch and is destined to go far.
After three improving starts - from last of 14 to sixth to fourth - the Shane Baertschiger-trained four-year-old New Zealand-bred came right and then proved that his win was no fluke with a back-to-back success.
Now, Red Ocean looks set to make it a grand hat-trick in Sunday's Race 7, the $50,000 Class 4 event over 1,600m on turf.
I was pretty impressed with his final hit-out at Kranji on Wednesday morning.
The Aramco Stable-owned bay gelding gave stablemate Flak Jacket a slight headstart at the 600m mark, but cruised up under his own steam to finish better at the finish in 37.1sec.
He pulled up without raising a sweat. He could have gone another round.
His task seems easier now with the race being depleted to nine runners, following five withdrawals.
He stands out on form. None of his remaining eight rivals has a placing to show in their last start.
He has also drawn well, Gate 5 - the position he had when winning his last outing.
With improvement, he should see out Sunday's 1,600m trip. Both his victories were over 1,400m on turf.
Being by a Cox Plate winner and out of a Danasinga (Stradbroke Handicap winner) mare, Baertschiger believes Red Ocean will develop into a stayer.
For the record, he is a half-brother to the Baertschiger-trained Group 3 Jumbo Jet Trophy winner Preditor.
It seemed that the lanky trainer they call Stretch at Kranji has found the key to Red Ocean's turnaround in form - a different strategy.
Both his wins were with catch-me-if-you-can tactics and he was ridden by the in-form Danny Beasley on both occasions.
Beasley, who returned to race riding earlier in the year after a 3½-year off to be an assistant trainer-cum-senior track rider to trainer Daniel Meagher, has shot to the top of the jockeys' table with 29 winners.
He is two clear of four-time Singapore champion Vlad Duric and promising local lad Wong Chin Chuen.
But he is seven winners behind the season's leader, apprentice jockey Hakim Kamaruddin.
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