Trainer Laurie Laxon will have a two pronged attack going into the Group 2 $300,000 Chairman’s Trophy over 1800m on Friday night.
Laxon will be represented by his evergreen rising seven-year-old Waikato and recent Emirates Singapore Derby placegetter Intercept in the night’s feature event.
Waikato will have a change of rider with Saimee Jumaat in the saddle as Joao Moreira, who guided the gelding to victory last time, booked for Intercept.
Laxon is expecting the two New Zealand bred geldings to be highly competitive in the weight-for-age contest.
“Waikato comes into the race pretty well at the weights,” said Laxon. “If it were a handicap he would be giving away a lot of weight to the other horses.”
The gelding resumed with an impressive win under Moreira in the Group 3 Saas Fee Stakes over 1400m on July 11, his first start since running a courageous fourth to Lizard’s Desire in the Group 1 Singapore Airlines International Cup over 2000m on May 16.
“He’s trained on nicely since that first-up win,” said Laxon. “His work has been good and I don’t think the 1800m after a break will be a concern.
“He seems pretty fit to me and he’s a lot more relaxed in his races now.”
Laxon had been concerned about Waikato’s strength as a younger horse and 24 of his first 25 starts in his 38 start career had been over 1200m.
But as the son of Pins has got older he has also strengthen up, to the stage where he run a career best performance in the SIA Cup.
Intercept has been galloping with Waikato on the training track and Laxon said he had come back well from his third placing in the Singapore Derby.
“He made a sustained run from the 1000m out wide on the track,” said Laxon. “He drew a wide barrier and the field never really broke up, so he was caught three wide throughout.
“Under the circumstances it was a great effort.”
Laxon will also have a strong hand in the night’s other feature event, the $125,000 Open Handicap over 1400m.
He will saddle Good Feel, to be ridden by Joao Moreira, and Noble Manor, Saimee Jumaat, in the contest.
Good Feel, resuming after spending a mandatory three months on the sidelines following a bleeding attack, has been working strongly in preparation for his return to racing.
“He galloped nicely on Tuesday morning and that comes on top of some nice gallops previously,” said Laxon.
“The big question mark over him is the fact he has 59kg first-up. That is a bit of a worry as there are some nicely weighted younger horses in the race that are getting a lot of weight from him.”
Laxon said Noble Man had freshened up nicely following his fading last behind Race Ahead in the Singapore Derby.
“He found the trip too far in the Derby,” said Laxon. “Hopefully he has freshened up OK for this race and will run a better race.”
Meanwhile class three-year-old filly Mexican Rose has run her last race and is off to the breeding barn.
Successful in the Shin Min Cup over 1200m last Friday night, Mexican Rose enters quarantine on August 6.
After spending two weeks in quarantine here in Singapore the daughter of Volksraad will be flown to Australia where she will be required to spend another three weeks in quarantine at Eastern Creek near Sydney.
Laxon said Mexican Rose had been booked to be served by Encosta de Lago.
“We had her scanned on Tuesday to check that her uterus and ovaries were all in check,” said laxon. “We didn’t want to be sending her down to Australia and find that she was barren.”
Mexican Rose cracked the $600,000 mark in prizemoney for the Jupiter Stable with last Friday night’s success and retires as the winner of eight races from her 11 starts.