3 minute read

Just the sole meeting in Singapore last week with the Hideyuki Takaoka trained Star Jack the headline performer on Friday night.

Only a recent edition to Takaoka's team, Star Jack made his Singapore debut back in March finishing well back over 1400m.

Stepped up to the mile at his second start, Star Jack showed good improvement before placing at his next start behind Auspicious Day.

Star Jack

Given four weeks between runs, Star Jack was then tried over 1800m, proving too strong on-speed ahead of Gold City.

Successful in returning a new career peak, Star Jack proceeded to springboard off that mark, notching up back to back wins on Friday night.

Making the rise to 2000m, Star Jack again had too much in the locker, despite forced to sit wide throughout.

Although only a narrow margin (0.5L) there was a good gap to both third and fourth and it appears a strong piece of form.

Ridden by Olivier Placais, the son of Jungle Pocket continued his upward spiral and is clearly a galloper heading the right way.

Takaoka is a masterful trainer of stayers and he looks to have a nice horse on his hands in Star Jack.

Likely to be kept fresh, Star Jack is one to place in your blackbook and with all going well will likely line up within the next month.

Prior to being transferred to Singapore, Star Jack had won at both the mile and 1000m so it will be interesting to see whether Takaoka drops him back in trip.

Either way he is expected to continue his rise through the grades and looks to be a horse you can follow with confidence.

Grand Knight

The Leslie Khoo trained Grand Knight broke through for his maiden win in race two and appears on track for more wins.

Only lightly raced, Grand Knight appreciated the step up to 1400m and returned decent figures in the process.

Ridden aggressively to lead from the wide draw (COT), Grand Knight proved too good, holding off the fast finishing Cracking Tottie to score by 1.8L.

He gave his rivals little chance and basically ran them off their feet.

The sizable beaten margins point to it being an above average maiden win and while it's never easy taking that next step, he appears capable and is a horse that should be followed.