Ode To Joy set to go one better

As with his former boss Patrick Shaw's style, trainer Ricardo Le Grange sent his team out for their final piece of work at Kranji yesterday.

As his horses are having their assignments in two days, they did not go overly hard, just a sprint up the straight to clear the wind.

The most impressive of his seven runners was ODE TO JOY, who clapped on the pace from the top of the straight to clock 41.9sec for 600m.

The going was good.

Ode To Joy, who had jockey Barend Vorster astride, pulled up fresh as a daisy.

Last time out on Jan 2, the five-year-old Argentinian-bred ran a top second to stablemate Storm Troops over 1,200m on a yielding track.

That was in a high Open Benchmark 89 event and he is engaged in only an Open Benchmark 74 event in Race 7 tomorrow. However, he has to hump the top impost of 59kg. Still, he can be a force to be reckoned with on his current form.

Vorster also galloped last-start third place-getter IRON MAN in a similar sprint in the straight in 42.7. The horse also looked well but Vorster has opted to ride Ode To Joy, which could be a good pointer.

BOARD WALK (MM Firdaus) was the only Le Grange's horse to go the full 600m gallop, clocking 36.9. But the 10-time winner is the first reserve in tomorrow's Race 8

YESTERDAY'S GALLOPS

RACE 3: Quicksilver (N Juglall) 41.3. RACE 5: Rafaello * (Juglall) pace work. RACE 6: Perfect Commando 42.6. RACE 7: Ode To Joy * (B Vorster) 41.9. Justice First 40.4. Iron Man * (Vorster) 42.7. Iking (R Shafiq) pace work. RACE 8: Elusive Emperor (MM Firdaus) pace work. Terms Of Reference * (Juglall) 40.1. Board Walk * (Firdaus) 36.9.