3 minute read

There were a number of key performances in Singapore over the weekend with three-year-old Conflight causing a boil over in Sunday's Group 3 Singapore 3YO Sprint.

Trained by Alvin Tan Conflight was dismissed as a leading contender in the feature sprint following his below par performance in the lead up.

Sent out the well supported favourite on that occasion Conflight failed to measure up in the Bm67 event beaten 5.8L into fifth.

Prior to that Conflight has collected three wins on the trot but was given little chance on Sunday sent out at the juicy odds of $52.80 (Singapore tote).

Conflight

Labelled as only a polytrack horse Conflight quickly silenced his critics and proceeded to have no issues running out the 1200m.

Ridden by Oscar Chavez Conflight enjoyed all the favours in front and in the end was too good, holding off the late charge of race favourite Magnum.

His fourth success from seven starts Conflight returned a clear new career peak though some query remains over the level of performance.

From an historical point of view the winning figure of Conflight in the Singapore 3YO Sprint was well below recent renewals.

Last year we saw both Affleck and Kiwi Karma fight out the finish and in years gone by War Affair, Stepitup and Super Easy have all been successful in the event.

While progressive Conflight is not up to this high standard and upon reflection Sunday's feature event highlighted the key loss of star galloper Super One.

The dominant juvenile of his generation Super One was partially sold and transferred to Australia in August last year.

Had Super One in fact remained in Singapore an argument can be made that he would have easily won Sunday's event and returned a winning figure that fit nicely into the historical profile of the event.

At this stage the current crop of three-year-olds is a fair bit behind on what we have seen in recent years however there are still a few progressive types who create plenty of interest moving forward.

The second Leg of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge is the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) on April 24 with the last Leg, the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) due to be run on May 15.

On Friday night the Stephen Gray trained Twickenham really impressed in his return when narrowly edging out the heavily supported Dragon Fury.

Unseen since finishing down the track in the Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup [2200m], Twickenham was simply too strong landing the Bm89 event.

Twickenham

Ridden by Vlad Duric Twickenham jumped well from the outside stall and pressed on to settle outside the Laurie Laxon trained Goodman.

Ran at a brutal pace early Goodman clocked 22.28 seconds for the first 400m, generally you rarely see horses break 24 seconds under these circumstances.

Twickenham remained under a good hold rounding the home turn despite Goodman failing to let up, recording 33.07 seconds for the first 600m!

Quickly beaten off on straightening Goodman did stick on fairly well under the circumstances however it meant Twickenham hit the front a long way from home.

Race favourite Dragon Fury appeared to have him at his mercy in the final 200m, however Twickenham fought on valiantly to post his seventh win from 17 starts.

Marked just shy of his career peak Twickenham appears set for another profitable preparation and is definitely one to follow.

How much Sunday's effort took out of Twickenham remains to be seen however trust in Gray to place him in suitable company and have him spot on for his next outing.