Big show from 4-time winner
Big Hearted impresses at Kranji barrier trials
Until the country went into lockdown, racing fans were quietly expecting big things from a horse named Big Hearted.
An honest-to-goodness campaigner, he had neatly sewn together four smart wins from his eight outings. The sky was the limit.
Then came the break from racing and Big Hearted's plans - and that of many others at Kranji - were put on ice.
However, at a trial yesterday morning at Kranji, Big Hearted jogged our memory with a blistering show over the 1,000m on the Polytrack.
Ridden by Louis-Philippe Beuzelin, he jumped with the rest but was snagged back in a compact field to sit behind the pace when the runners hit the 600m marker.
Into the stretch and Beuzelin asked his mount for an effort. Big Hearted was up to the challenge and he quickly reeled in the front-runners. He passed them 100m from home and went on to win by half a length.
Ironclad (WH Kok) and Baffert (A'Isisuhairi Kasim) were second and third respectively.
From Michael Clements' yard, Big Hearted won his last race at his last start in early January. That day, he produced a devastating finishing burst to win that Polytrack contest over the 1,200m.
He had, in November, demonstrated versatility when winning over the 1,400m on turf.
Big Hearted's a young horse and there's huge potential in that frame of his. Watch him on his return to racing.
Also impressive at the trials was Muraahib.
From Lee Freedman's yard, Muraahib has yet to unleash his full potential. A winner of four races on city tracks in Australia, he has so far managed to put one win on the board at Kranji.
He is better than that. And his pillar-to-post win at the trials did suggest more wins to come. Watch him on July 26.
In the first trial of the morning, Clements took the trifecta when his runners filled the first three placings.
Keep an eye on the winner, Heartening Flyer. He won by almost three lengths - and in a more than decent time of 60.46sec.
He, too, is entered for the races on July 26. Keep him on your list of horses to follow.
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