Aftermath eyes maiden victory

With a second and a third from just four outings, Aftermath is shaping up nicely for a win.

It could come as early as Saturday when he takes on Class 4 rivals over the Poly 1,100m.

An expensive import by the Te Akau Racing group, he was one of a clutchful of runners who impressed on the training track yesterday morning.

Taken out by Kranji's leading rider Hakim Kamaruddin and paced by King Arthur (Rizuan Shafiq), Aftermath cruised over 600m in 36.4sec.

Just turned four, Aftermath knows what it is like to win a race. He did it in style when winning one in New South Wales when he was a three-year-old.

Arriving at Kranji last December, trainer Mark Walker pumped him up with a series of trials, beginning in March this year.

He won two of those hit-outs which had him primed for his race debut on April 18.

However, he drew wide in that 1,200m race to take third behind Lim's Kosciuszko.

Two more runs followed - in May and June - where he did not make the board. However, there was plenty to like about the way he ran that last outing on Aug 29.

That day, when backed down to $19, he turned in an eye-catching performance to be second to Water Rocket.

At the post in that 1,100m contest, he was just half a length behind the winner.

Since then, Walker has kept his charge boiling over. Mark him down as one of the better bets on Saturday.

Trainer Tim Fitzsimmons, who has been producing some good winners recently, including Gold Star last week, has entered a tight team of five for Saturday and outstanding in that quintet is Lucky Jinsha.

Owned by Lucky Unicorn Stable, Lucky Jinsha showed up on the training track where he ran 600m in 38.8sec.

An Australian-bred by Shooting The Wind, Lucky Jinsha won his last start in good fashion. He is expected to put another win on the board.

On Aug 22, the speedster made his opponents look like second-raters.

Taking the lead from the get-go, he was never in any trouble. If ever there was an "armchair" ride, that was it.

Indeed, all that Hakim had to do was to sit like an emperor in a sedan chair, as Lucky Jinsha carried him to the winning post, seven lengths clear of Captain Singapore who went on to win the opening race last Saturday.

Another last-start winner who worked impressively was Special Ops.

He had Danny Beasley doing the steering when running 600m in a leisurely 40.5sec.

Trained by Jason Ong, Special Ops boosted his bank balance to $175,000 when winning his last start over 1,200m on Aug 29.

It is a quick back-up for this son of Reset, who has already put three wins on the board.

Not an overly big horse - he tips the scales in the 475kg region - Special Ops is really something special.

Incidentally, both Special Ops and Lucky Jinsha clash in the same race.

Since both are capable of putting together race-to-race doubles, the thing to do is to couple them for a "forecast" bet.