Freedman pair in fine fettle
Muraahib and Karisto earn stars for their morning trackwork
Two runners who found one to beat at their last starts could put things right in their respective races on Friday night. They are Muraahib and Karisto.
Both were impressive on the training track yesterday morning and could win if they manage to bring that form to the races.
Muraahib, down to contest the Class 2 sprint over the 1,000m, clocked 38.1sec for his dash over the 600m. He had jockey JP van der Merwe in the saddle.
From Lee Freedman's yard, Muraahib has been raking in the money for his connections - and he has had only five starts.
Last time out on Nov 3, the son of Reset was sent out as the $18 second pick but he was never going to catch the $224 roughie, You Rokk, who took out the race by 11/4 lengths.
But Muraahib lost no marks. It was "one of those things" when a favourite gets rolled over by an outsider.
But Muraahib has obviously trained on and the 10-week break seems to have done him a world of good.
A five-year-old, Muraahib broke through for his first win in just his third Kranji start. But he was always going to run well.
After all, as a racehorse in Australia, he had four wins under his girth before being flown out here to continue his racing.
Owned by the Oscar Racing Stable, he is certainly going places.
As for Karisto, he didn't do a thing wrong when running the 600m in 36.8sec yesterday morning.
Like Muraahib, he too found one to beat in his last start. That was on Dec 6 and the horse who played spoiler was Letitgo who proved to be an impressive winner.
With seven race starts to show since arriving at his Kranji stable in September 2018, Karisto looks due to open his Kranji account.
He goes over the mile on Friday and the distance should pose no problems.
Flip back the pages and you'll see that Karisto should be at home over the 1,600m.
He won a race over that distance at Te Rapa in New Zealand in April 2018 and in June that same year, he ran fourth to Sambro in the Queensland Guineas at Doomben - a Group 2 event for three-year-olds.
The nice-looking chestnut has had enough time to settle in and, while he does meet some smart ones in Friday's Kranji Stakes C race over the mile, Freedman will have him ticking like a time bomb ready to explode on the field.
On Sunday, keep an eye on Field Marshal. Still a three-year-old, he ran the 600m in 37.8sec. He had New Year Cup-winning jockey T Krisna in the saddle and they had a stablemate for company.
Field Marshal was a revelation in the season just gone by.
A debut winner in July last year, he made it a hat-trick of wins by taking out his next two races.
However, it all became undone at his last start when he finished a well-beaten sixth to Inferno in the 1,200m Saas Fee Stakes.
He races over the 1,400m on Sunday. It's his first attempt over the trip, but the added distance should suit his preferred style of racing - which is to sit off midfield and mow them down with a turn of speed over the concluding stages.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
