Sacred Rebel, Grand Koonta look best
Impressive in their track gallops, they are the top bets at Kranji tonight and tomorrow respectively
Those who saw them wind up their preparations on Tuesday morning must have been more than impressed.
Sacred Rebel and Grand Koonta were obviously the star workers of the morning and they make the best bets at Kranji tonight and tomorrow respectively. Mind you, they have good form to boot, too.
Let's start with Sacred Rebel, prepared by by two-time Singapore champion trainer and the season's leader Mark Walker.
The chestnut four-year-old sizzled over 600m on Tuesday morning in 34.8sec and pulled up wanting more.
That was not all. Just a week earlier, Sacred Rebel won his trial beautifully. So, the horse must be in top form.
One who has yet to run a bad race from five starts, Sacred Rebel scored a running Class 3 double at his third and fourth start - over the Polytrack 1,100m on April 12 and 1,200m on April 26.
Then at his last appearance on May 10, the Australian-bred gelding was tested again over 1,200m on the turf - which he failed second-up - in Class 2.
Although he could only finish fifth, he lost by just 23/4 lengths to the useful Quarter Back, who won for the fifth time.
Now back to the Poly and coupled with the dazzling form both in trackwork and trial, Sacred Rebel is surely one to beat in Race 7 tonight.
As for Grand Koonta, this horse is flying and is heading for better things.
Just look at his record - second first-up and then two Class 4 wins in succession. His last-start victory, in particular, stamps him as a horse out of the ordinary.
The James Peters-trained and China Horse Club-owned four-year-old Irish-bred clocked below 1min 10sec - 1:09.49 exactly carrying the top impost of 59kg.
Tomorrow in Race 9, the smart grey gelding will shoulder only 57kg, although it will be in Class 3 this time, following a promotion. But, on his last-start achievement, he looks top-class material.
Like Sacred Rebel, Grand Koonta has also mesmerised in both trackwork and trial leading up to his engagement.
Last week, he finished third in a trial which he could have won. Jockey Michael Rodd was just giving his mount a free gallop.
Then, on Tuesday morning, Rodd sent Grand Koonta for his final gallop and his horse looked raring to go but was restricted to clock 37.3sec.
He's spot-on now. The promotion is unlikely to stop him.
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