3 minute read

There was just the sole meeting held in Singapore over the weekend with promising sprinter Super Winner the standout performance on Friday night.

The definition of consistency, Super Winner brought up his eighth win from 14 starts when simply too strong in the seventh event.

Aided by a beautiful ride from Elione Chaves, Super Winner began well from the wide draw before pressing on to settle fourth, one off the fence.

Tracking the speed approaching the straight, Super Winner was left a touch flat-footed passing the 400m, before balancing up and surging to the line.

Both Got Luck and Pachelbel's Canon gave plenty of cheek on-speed before Super Winner really knuckled down, overhauling both inside the final 100m.

Drawing away to score by just over a length, Super Winner continued his affinity with the polytrack — 10 starts for eight wins and two minor placings.

In nine attempts over 1200m, Super Winner has only missed the money once including four victories.

Trained by Theo Kieser he has continued to make steady improvement and notably returned a new career peak on Friday night.

Improving three pounds on his previous best, Super Winner is arguably one of the more promising sprinters in Singapore and has since proven his Group 3 placing behind Emperor Max was no fluke (20/09/15 - Garden City Trophy - finished second).

Following the event connections indicated a start in this weekend's Group 1 Lion City Cup [1200m] could be on the cards if the four-year-old came through the run in good health.

A somewhat baptism of fire, Super Winner would face easily his toughest test to date with the likes of Spalato, Emperor Max, Zac Spirit and Kiwi Karma all due to take their place.

A daunting task given it is WFA, however Super Winner's ratings profile suggests he can acquit himself well and while he may not be able to win, he deserves his place in the field.

When looking at recent renewals [last five years], Super Winner projects to run within the first four when assessing Timeform ratings.

However in this year's case there is a lot more depth at the top end, as in the past the race had generally fallen away outside the first two placegetters.

Nonetheless Super Winner is still only relatively lightly raced and given he continues to raise the bar he cannot be taken lightly in the feature sprint.

The John O'Hara trained Spalato is the big query runner as while clearly below his best last start no question he is the class galloper.

His performance two back when taking out the Group 2 Merlion Trophy was simply first class and if able to bounce back to that form, he looks to set the bar fairly high for his rivals.

Pachelbel's Canon

Out of the same event on Friday, Pachelbel's Canon is definitely one to keep safe in the coming weeks.

Formerly trained by Michael Clements, Pachelbel's Cannon is one of seven Argentinean bred gallopers to be transferred to Shaw's care in recent months.

A Group 1 winner at three [Old name: Livingstone], Pachelbel's Cannon had failed to fire in seven starts for Clements but was clearly back on track when finishing second behind Super Winner.

On career best form he is quite the talented galloper and given he will be better up to a mile, the future appears bright for this preparation.

If Shaw can get Pachelbel's Cannon back to his best he is sure to be winning many races and is definitely one to place in your blackbook.