Circuit Land heads the S'pore team in Kranji Mile, Latest Racing News - The New Paper
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Circuit Land heads the S'pore team in Kranji Mile

Group 2 Chairman's Trophy winner the highest-rated of 11 local horses in $1.5 million Invitational race

Last-start Group 2 Chairman's Trophy winner Circuit Land will spearhead a team of 11 Singapore runners in the inaugural $1.5 million Invitational Group 1 Kranji Mile over 1,600m.

Kranji Mile Day on May 26, which also showcases two other $1 million Group 1 races - the Lion City Cup over 1,200m and the Singapore Guineas over 1,600m - will be a twilight meeting starting at 3.45pm.

Four overseas horses have been invited to compete but English contender Here Comes When has been withdrawn after injuring himself on Saturday morning.

This leaves Southern Legend and Horse Of Fortune from Hong Kong and Ocean Emperor from New Zealand to take on Kranji's best gallopers.

The other local candidates are Elite Excalibur (trainer Cliff Brown), Infantry (Alwin Tan), Clarton Super (Tan Kah Soon), Volkstok'n'barrell (Donna Logan), Well Done (Shane Baertschiger), Preditor (Baertschiger), Nova Strike (Alwin Tan), Majestic Moments (Ricardo Le Grange), Maximus (Alwin Tan) and Iron Man (Le Grange).

The Chairman's Trophy on April 27 was a good trial for the Kranji Mile as seven of the local runners ran against each other in that race.

Circuit Land, the former Hong Kong-based galloper who was at only his second Kranji start for Australian Hall of Fame trainer Lee Freedman, came out tops after a close fight with Infantry, the reigning Singapore Horse of the Year.

Circuit Land picked up 12 points for that win to sit on 114 points, making him the highest-rated Singapore-based horse in the field.

Infantry won the last Kranji Mile when it was run in October as the Panasonic-sponsored first leg of the Singapore Triple Crown series. The five-year-old boasts three more Group wins among his total haul of nine wins, including the Group 1 Emirates Singapore Derby over 2,000m last year.

Well Done is another Derby winner (2016) in the mix. Transferred recently from David Kok to Baertschiger, the six-year-old by Falkirk also won the Group 1 Patron's Bowl over 1,600m among the seven races he captured for Kok, paving the way to the Champion Four-Year-Old title that year.

After showing promise in his first season, even performing creditably in Dubai last year, the former Sydney-based Elite Excalibur finally took a well-deserved feature at his third Kranji win in the Group 3 Committee's Prize over 1,600m on March 18.

The Fastnet Rock five-year-old flew home for third in the Chairman's Trophy, going down by a length.

A winner of five races at Kranji, Clarton Super has spearheaded young trainer Tan Kah Soon's fledgling career from Day 1.

The Swift Alliance five-year-old has already given the first full-season handler two big-race wins - the Group 2 EW Barker Trophy over 1,400m and the Group 3 Fortune Bowl over 1,400m.

The sixth local raider to boast "black type" credentials is new Kranji trainer Logan's Volkstok'n'barrell, but earned in New Zealand.

Still yet to race in Singapore, the Tavistock six-year-old was a multiple-Group winner, including four at Group 1 level.

Of the remaining four local contenders, Le Grange's Majestic Moments was runner-up three times in Group 1.

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