Makkem Lad ready to sprint
The best from the trials on Tuesday morning
He's a trier. No quarrel there. He's been to the races 23 times and he's won eight of them. On six other occasions, he played bridesmaid.
Ask trainer Donna Logan. She'll tell you Makkem Lad's a good horse to have in the yard.
On Singapore Gold Cup Day this Sunday, Makkem Lad will race in the main event on the undercard. That's the 1,200m sprint for Class 1 horses.
It is going to be a nail-biter with the likes of Grand Koonta, Lim's Dream and Kharisma all shooting for the stars.
I say don't discount the chances of Makkem Lad.
Logan, who has Minister running in the Gold Cup, will be looking for a good show from her sprinter and, in preparation, she sent him to the trials on Tuesday morning.
Ridden by apprentice jockey Yusoff Fadzli, Makkem Lad jumped well but was very quickly tucked in neatly behind the leading pair of Sahabat and Mortal Engine.
Logan's instructions to her apprentice must have been simple. Give him free rein and let him get a good stretch-out.
Yusoff kept to the script. He had Makkem Lad travelling nicely all the way and the six-year-old eventually took third in a tight finish.
Sahabat won the trial by a neck from Mortal Engine, who beat Makkem Lad by half a length. The winner clocked 59.65sec for the Poly 1,000m.
Makkem Lad is a last-start winner, but that was two months ago. Still, don't hold it against him. The fact that he so easily broke the minute mark in his trial must mean that Logan has kept him ticking over nicely.
Yes, there's nothing preventing him from getting his ninth win on Sunday.
Mortal Engine is another good one. For those of you who are asking: "Who is this Mortal Engine?" Well, no harm there. The "Engine" hasn't been running for almost 10 months. So here's something to refresh your memory.
Costing $85,000 as a yearling, he had one unplaced run Down Under before being flown here by Tivic Stable to continue his racing. He arrived in September last year and trainer Michael Clements sent him to the trials on Christmas Eve.
That was the first time we saw him and he created an impression, winning that trial by half a length. Ten days later, he was at the races and he didn't disappoint. Backed down to $14, he beat Ironprince in a tight finish.
Racegoers knew they were onto a good thing. But, that was that. We saw nothing more of him. Clements had him cotton-wooled until Tuesday's trial.
Can we take it that Mortal Engine is ready to be fired up again? It would seem so.
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