The Executioner in fiery mood
Trainer Jason Lim's 5YO looks set to live up to his name in tomorrow's Class 4 race
Watch out, The Executioner is ready to play his role tomorrow, after half a dozen well-executed practices.
From six starts at Kranji, the two-time Australian winner has performed well - bar winning.
He has had two seconds, a third and two fourths. His only out-of-board outing was a smack-up sixth.
It all points to the five-year-old chestnut gelding taking tomorrow's $50,000 Class 4 event over 1,400m on turf.
First and foremost, he is not meeting an overly strong bunch.
Save for the topweight Sacred Judgement, who won his last three starts, his other nine rivals look just ordinary.
The Executioner's best weapon is his last-start performance. Mind you, it was in the Group 2 Stewards' Cup over 1,600m on July 3.
After being slowly away, he ran on fourth behind Mr Malek. He was beaten by just 31/4 lengths.
For good measure, his run before that was also impressive. He beat all but Group 3 Singapore Golden Horseshoe winner Boomba over 1,400m on June 5.
On that evidence, he looks a class above his Class 4 rivals tomorrow.
What's more, trainer Jason Lim has his charge bursting out of his skin for his assignment.
As The Executioner has not raced for three months, he gave the gelding a barrier trial last week to keep him on his toes -and what a performance it was.
A long last and very wide early, he perked up in the straight and slayed his rivals in one big swoosh. He went on to win by 21/4 lengths in under one minute (59.80sec) for the Polytrack 1,000m.
If that is not good enough, The Executioner has two other pluses. He is drawn nicely in Gate 2 and the blinkers will be refitted. He wore the gear when he ran second in his second Kranji start on April 18.
That was over the Poly 1,200m. Held up in that race, he was putting in good work at the finish to be only 11/4 lengths behind the winner, Hotshots Slam.
The season's leading senior rider, jockey Danny Beasley, has partnered the horse in his last four starts and he certainly knows what to do by now.
Only the Mark Walker-trained Sacred Judgement stands in The Executioner's way.
Although he has risen 15 points from his hat-trick in Class 4, he still remains in the same class, but with the top impost of 59kg. However, he will carry only 55kg after Jelyn Seow's 4kg rookie's claim.
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