Olympian Eager has the means and the muscle
Trainer David Kok's gentle giant is set for a gold-medal showing
A year ago, and almost to the day, Olympian Eager saluted on debut. That was in an "Initiation" and he carried 57.5kg.
His work coming into that race was impeccable. Two trials. Two wins. Both times going under 61sec for the 1,000m.
In that last trial, he was simply super - blowing his rivals away when winning by eight and-a-quarter lengths and clocking 59.34sec while humping 60kg.
Word got out and on raceday the faithful pawned their gold fillings to have a punt on this hefty entire. The big fella duly obliged. That done, Olympian Eager disappeared from the scene only to resurface 11 months later.
Tipping the scales at 637kg, he showed there weren't any cobwebs from that long layoff. On the contrary, he came, he saw and he conquered.
Tardy out of the chute, all that jockey Vlad Duric had in front of him as they raced down that back stretch was a sea of bobbing bottoms. But already, Olympian Eager was weaving a path through the field.
Heading down the final straight, he found the lead and away he scooted - methodically breaking the hearts and burning the lungs of everything he passed.
It was sublime, the way he did it, and just like that, another Kranji star beckoned on the horizon.
Olympian Eager will be having his third Kranji race start in the "3.15". It's another dash for the cash. A thousand metres and tailor-made for trainer David Kok's giant, who will jump from Gate One.
Duric's again in the saddle and Olympian Eager will come into it on the back of a fine trial on Nov 16.
The field in Race 5 does boast some talented racers like Grey Falcon, Conilad and Cadet. But to my mind, Olympian Eager has got the means and the muscle to tame this lot.
So stick with him and you just might build a "pot" for the second half of the day's proceedings.
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