Saving the best for Last
Trainer Peters’ Last Supper looks all set to outrun Class 4 peers again in closing event
The way Last Supper burst through the pack to score at his last start drove home two messages.
One was a revelation – he can handle Polytrack. But we already knew the second one – he is much better than Class 4.
The son of Grunt was even tagged as James Peters’ gun 3YO once. He did not score, but ran creditably, in the 1,200m Sprint leg, though he was disappointing in the next 1,400m Classic leg.
But the seven-point penalty he accrued for that 1 3/4-length win on June 16 still qualified him for one last shot at Class 4 on July 13.
On 66 points, he will lump the top weight in a similar 1,100m event in the last race, but 58.5kg is by no means a back-breaking load for a horse tipping the scales at around 520kg.
Besides, that day he resumed from a two-month layoff, he towered over his much lighter-framed nine rivals to win going away, and over a surface which is, arguably, still not his favourite.
Whether it was superiority or versatility, Peters had the confirmation the only Yu Long-owned horse left at Kranji was not one-dimensional.
As such, Last Supper is having another shot at Polytrack, the surface the Class 4 race on July 13 will be run on.
On paper, this lot should make for meatier opposition, given the horses he last beat were more towards the Division 2 end of the Class 4 band.
But, in reality, there is not much between the two categories.
Four of the beaten brigade – namely Surrey Hills (second), V’Invincible (third), Groovy (fourth) and Legacy Fortune (fifth) – will look to turn the tables on him.
But even the swing in weights – as much as 6.5kg for Legacy Fortune for a five-length beating – may not prove enough to topple Last Supper.
If anything, the main threat may hail from competitors outside of that formline, like Pacific Commander and Lucky Baby.
Pacific Commander did also test his mettle in the 3YO races where he was, however, totally outclassed in all three legs, finishing behind Last Supper in the first two legs.
The Jason Ong-trained son of Written By was more in his element when eased back to Class 4 company.
At his last start, he even looked like one of the winning chances in the thrilling six-way finish to a Class 4 (1,200m) race on June 30.
A few metres from the line, he actually looked like he had the race shot to pieces, but he seemed to pull up on apprentice jockey Jerlyn Seow.
The switch to Polytrack, the surface he recorded his two wins on, can only be another plus.
Unsighted in nearly five months, the Jerome Tan-trained Lucky Baby ran a closing second first-up in a Class 4 (1,000m) race over a trip too short for him.
The English-bred Dream Ahead five-year-old will strip fitter for this.
Surrey Hills did his best to run Last Supper down inside the last furlong, but ended up chasing shadows to finish second. With a 3.5kg pull in weights for a 1 3/4-length beating, the Ong-trained Sweynesse five-year-old has a good chance of narrowing the margin.
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