Grand Cross kicks off Peters' treble

Expensive import GRAND CROSS, who has yet to run a bad race, bounced back to score his third Kranji success from 10 starts in Race 3 last night with the help of the blinkers.

The gear sharpened him up and set him rocketing to the front from the word "go". Although Flak Jacket rushed up to eyeball him at the 1,000m mark of the Class 3 event over 1,200m, the China Horse Club-owned Australian-bred broke away again in just a few strides.

He led into the straight by a length and then extended his lead to two lengths in the final 200m under jockey Vlad Duric's vigorous riding.

Costing A$1.3 million (S$1.4 million) as a yearling, the $10 favourite went on to beat his last-start conqueror, Elusive Emperor, by one-and-three-quarter lengths in a fast 1min 09.77sec.

"He's a good travelling horse. He's got plenty of speed and the blinkers back on definitely sharpened him up," said winning trainer James Peters, who went on to win the next two races with WINNING EXPRESS and DREAMWEAVER.