Crutchley in form at trials

Represented by just one runner – Fame Star – in Monday’s racing action, trainer Stephen Crutchley will have plenty of time to nibble on his Chinese New Year goodies.

It is, perhaps, deserving. After all, he had a strong hand at the trials on Tuesday morning.

It kept him busy and he came away with three winners from the four trials contested.

He took the opener with Sirbring Colt in the Official Race Trial (ORT), followed in the second by Proof Perfect, who also passed a bleeder’s test.

Finally, in the last hit-out, Sportscaster led from go to whoa to score with plenty still left in the tank.

Of the three trial winners, Proof Perfect seemed the standout.

The eight-year-old, who began his Kranji racing career only in mid-2020 after nine starts for three wins in Australia, took command at the 700m mark and never surrendered the lead.

Ridden by apprentice Jerlyn Seow, Proof Perfect held off some late challenges, most notably from Benny Woodworth on Happy Wonderful, to win by a clear ½ length

Proof Perfect clocked 1min 00.66sec for the 1,000m.

Sure, it was a grinding sort of victory but Proof Perfect had shown plenty of resolve.

It was also his second trial win in as many starts, having beaten his rivals over the same distance on Dec 27. That day, and over the trial trip, he clocked 1min 00.25sec.

Proof Perfect’s last win was on June 18, 2022. It was the second leg of a running double.

It came a month after he had beaten a Class 4 field by two lengths over the 1,200m on the Polytrack.

Both times, he had Ronnie Stewart doing the steering.

Proof Perfect is not going to be a pin-up boy in any horsey magazine.

But he can still raise a mighty gallop and, if he drops back to Class 4, we could see him notch up his fourth Kranji victory.

At nine years old, Sportscaster is really getting long in the tooth. But he seems young at heart and still races like a juvenile.

Like we saw at the trials, his rider Ng Choon Kiat jumped him cleanly from an inside alley and, from then, his rivals were left chasing his lengthening shadow.

Three furlongs out and he had his five rivals eating his dust.

Two hundred metres from home and he was five lengths clear of Manoel Nunes on Jewel Sixty-One and Vlad Duric on the highly rated Mr Black Back.

Having given his all over 900m of the trip, his rider allowed him a breather over the final 100m.

So it was, his two nearest rivals closed in. But they were never going to catch him.

Sportscaster eventually won by 1 3/4 lengths in 1min 02.03 sec.

Unlike Sportscaster, Sirbring Colt did it the hard way, coming from way off the pace to score a neck win over trainer Stephen Gray’s February and the Jerome Tan-trained Tantheman.

Sirbring Colt is by top sire Sebring, a classy horse who went on to sire eight individual Australian Group 1 winners.

If the three-year-old Sirbring Colt is anything like his late dad, he should do well when Crutchley sends him to the races.