Follow Le Grange for a dose of good 'Fortune'
Kranji trackwork
The very-popular Fortune Bowl, to be contested on Sunday, is shaping up to be a hotly contested "feature" over the Chinese New Year long weekend and we had a sneak preview of what is to come when two of its candidates impressed on the training track yesterday morning.
PERFECT P and BIG BROTHER, both trained by Ricardo Le Grange, cantered one round before showing off to run the 600m in 36.4sec.
Perfect P had Barend Vorster in the saddle while Big Brother had Nooresh Juglall on the reins.
The pair are just five of Le Grange's runners entered for the $200,000 Singapore Group 3 event which will be contested over the mile.
On form, both Perfect P and Big Brother cannot be faulted. Perfect P, already a winner of five from 13 races, comes into this on the back of a second and a fourth-placing in Group 3 races while Big Brother will be remembered for having to play bridesmaid in his last three outings.
We were particularly impressed with Big Brother's last start, which was The New Year Cup run over the 1,900m on the Polytrack.
That day, the four-year-old, who was only moderately supported, came from a spot off midfield when they turned for the run-in to lose out by half a length to the winner, Guru Guru.
Sure, this next one is on the turf and over the shorter 1,600m but Big Brother should be up to task. After all, it was only in October that he won a nice race over the mile and on the grass.
That was the second leg of a race-to-race double. It's worth noting that Big Brother's other victory was also over the mile - but on the alternate surface.
As for Perfect P, he ran his heart out on the last day of the 2016 season but failed to make it a winning one. Standing in his way was Daniel, who romped in unchallenged after putting in a grand front-running show. Last time out he ran fouth in the New Year Cup.
The Fortune Bowl is one of those "nice ones" which owners like to win as it could spell - well - "good fortune" in races to come.
Also on Sunday, you might want to keep an eye on MURRAYFIELD and ABSOLUTE MIRACLE. Both were impressive in their hit-outs on the training track.
Murrayfield, entered for the Class 3 event over the mile on the grass, was all go when held together by Vlad Duric to run the 600m in 38.
A four-year-old by Pins, Murrayfield has been a model of consistency, winning twice and placing four times in his last seven starts.
As for Absolute Miracle, he won his last start with plenty of authority and could cary that form into Sunday's Open Benchmark sprint over the tricky 1,400m.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now