Mortal Engine revs up
Clements-trained four-year-old motors home with plenty in the tank in trial victory
What happened to Mortal Engine when he flopped as the $10 favourite in the final race of the 2021 Singapore racing season on Nov 20?
Before we come to that, we first take a look at what he did at the trials yesterday morning at Kranji. Most who saw him win must be really in awe.
The Michael Clements-trained and Tivic Stable-owned four-year-old Australian-bred showed marked improvement, as he led from pillar to post in the 1,000m heat on the Polytrack. He won with plenty in reserve.
Ridden by former three-time Singapore champion Manoel Nunes, Mortal Engine was one of the quickest out of the gates to set the pace.
When Summer Wind closed in to challenge in the mid-straight, Nunes just gave a few light pushes and his mount revved up. He quickly reined it back. Yet, he won by a length in 1min 00.97sec.
Clements reckoned Mortal Engine benefited from his last run.
“He has done well since that run. Evidently, he had a great trial this morning. Nunes was very happy with the trial and I am really pleased with his progress,” he said.
“We still have a lot of confidence in the horse. Looking forward, we feel he has a much better preparation coming into his next run, which is likely to be next week, in a Class 4 sprint on the Polytrack.”
But what happened to Mortal Engine in his last start?
The Zimbabwe-born naturalised Singaporean said the stable was pretty excited about the horse’s future after his first-up success on Jan 3. But he was unfortunately unsound after the race and needed to have a rest. After that, Mortal Engine “needed one round of surgery to clean up a knee” and was prepared for racing towards the end of this year.
“He had one trial before his last run and it was a fair trial. But we always felt that, having had such a long time off, he probably would have needed another trial,” said Clements. “But we opted to get one run into him prior to end of this year, in November.
“There wasn’t enough time for two trials, so going into that run we kind of felt he had been gone off a long time, perhaps he may well not have been fit enough and he ran accordingly. He just tired in that run and didn’t run on at all.”
With the second-run syndrome behind him and his improvement, Mortal Engine looks set to atone for his expensive failure.
He is one to follow if you see his name in next week’s runners’ list.
This time last week, I highlighted Lucky Jinsha’s eye-catching trial success. Yesterday, the Tim Fitzsimmons-trained gelding again won stylishly in 59.40sec, the only winner to dip below one minute for the 1,000m trip.
The ultra-consistent four-year-old is a “must follow” in his next assignment.
Singapore Gold Cup-winning trainer Daniel Meagher’s newcomer It’s Complex was the other star triallist.
The Lucky Stable-owned five-year-old, who arrived with a rating of 61, took Trial 2 with Gold Cup-winning Danny Beasley aboard. His time was 1min 01.31sec, but the manner in which he won was super.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
