Come Sunday, go sweet on Chocolats
Top of the gallops from yesterday morning at Kranji.
Ever since arriving in Singapore in mid-2017, Chocolats has been paying for his board and lodging.
Since his debut in October last year, he has been to the races six times and, on five occasions he has brought home cheques.
Not big ones like the winners get to bank. But sizeable ones - sufficient to keep his connections happy.
Anyway, I reckon the big one isn't far away.
Indeed, it could be in the mail and delivered on Sunday.
Well, that is if Chocolats can bring his training form to the races.
Take yesterday morning at Kranji. With John Powell in the saddle and in the company of Kiss Your Song, Chocolats breezed over the 600m in 37.8sec.
It was an inspiring piece of work by the four-year-old who at his last start was beaten on the line by Dalgety.
Indeed, so tight was the finish that the judges had to call for a print which showed Dalgety winning by a nostril.
It was the third time that his connections had to endure the heartbreak of seeing their galloper beaten by under a length.
On two other occasions and in races over the mile, Chocolats went down to Pusaka in a Class 4 affair and later to Hidden Promise in a Class 3 race.
But that last one, when beaten by Dalgety, would have hurt badly.
The race was over the 2,000m and Chocolats dictated things right until the post loomed up.
Anything close would have been deemed a deadheat.
By Fastnet Rock and prepared for the races by Shane Baertschiger, Chocolats deserves a break and it could come in Race 5 on Sunday when he tackles the 1,600m in what looks like a winnable sort of race.
Chocolats' galloping partner on the day, Kiss Your Song, is also due to greet the judge.
His work on the training track has been good and his racing record does seem to tell us that he knows what is required of him when the bugle sounds.
Twice already, Kiss Your Song has missed out on the big one and just last month, he was what racegoers call "a good thing beaten".
Backed down to prohibitive odds - he eventually went off as the $16 top pick - Kiss Your Song received a check soon after the start which left him further back in the pack than his rider, Powell, would have wished for.
To compound things, he had - on the day - a super competitor in Quarterback who went on to win by a length.
There was no shame in that defeat and, against a small Restricted Maiden field in Race 4, we could see Powell blow kisses to the crowd as he trots his winner back to where his trainer and owners wait.
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