Fadaboy looks good against the novices

It may look like a strong Novice event in Race 5 at Kranji on Saturday, but the promising Fadaboy should get the lolly.

In just two starts, the handsome grey Australian-bred prepared by leading trainer Donna Logan has demonstrated that he is a horse of the future.

Turned four only last month, the Patrick Harrison-owned gelding by five-time Australian winner Deep Field has plenty of scope for improvement. 

He should develop into a nice thoroughbred and gradually build up some stamina on the genes from his dam’s side.

His mother, Ezee Ezee, is by former champion sire Zabeel, whose progeny include Melbourne Cup winners Might And Power, Efficient and Jezabeel.

Zabeel himself is by another great galloper and sire of champion stayers, Sir Tristram.

A winner of one of his two trials at Kranji, Fadaboy showed his star quality with his top-notch debut success on July 24.

Ridden by short-term Australian jockey Blake Shinn, he led all the way to beat stablemate Luxury Brand, albeit by a mere nose.

But the exciting part in that 1,200m success on turf in Restricted Maiden was his winning time, 1min 09.96sec.

Very few unraced newcomers register sub-1min 10sec first-up. That underscored Fadaboy’s vast potential.

Making just a 21-day back-up, Fadaboy again led in another 1,200m race on turf but in Class 4.

With 3kg-claiming apprentice jockey Yusoff Fadzli astride, he nearly made it back to back.

He was caught only close home by Charger and Sacred Judgement. The margins were just a head and a neck.

He was probably a victim of the second-run syndrome, but losing so narrowly was a top effort.

Apart from further improvement, there will be another big helping factor on Saturday.

There will be a big riding change – from a rookie to four-time Singapore champion jockey Vlad Duric.

The heavyweight Australian, who returned for another stint in late June, has been riding winners with clockwork regularity and scooping them by the spades.

In just 53 rides, he has chalked up 18 winners for a 33.96 per cent average. It is the highest among the Kranji riding ranks.

You can bet that once Duric secures the lead on Fadaboy, it will take a very good horse to run his quality mount down.

His threats include last-start winners Rocky, who is his stablemate, Ejaz and Cash Cove.

The Michael Clements-trained Ejaz also clocked a very fast time (1:09.95) when winning his last start, which was only last Sunday.

The six-day back-up is a bit of a concern, especially for a three-year-old. But Ejaz will be getting 8kg from Fadaboy.

The other two strong challengers are trainer Tim Fitzsimmons’ Dream Alliance and trainer Ricardo Le Grange’s Raffie.

Both showed promise by finishing second on debut.

That start on June 19 last year was Raffie’s only run, but the four-year-old Argentinian-bred looks to have overcome whatever problems he had. His work and trial were good.

The day’s other sound proposition is Fitzsimmons’ Buuraq in Race 3, the $50,000 Class 4 Div 1 event over the Poly 1,200m.

The three-time winner has run consistently well and his final gallop on Tuesday was superb.