Ettijah looks set for encore
Kranji Friday preview
ETTIJAH seems to have made tremendous progress and should make it back-to-back - and his third success from just five starts - in Race 8 at Kranji tonight.
Trained by Ricardo Le Grange, who has leapfrogged to second place behind Mark Walker in the trainers' table, the four-year-old New Zealand-bred looks like a horse heading for better things.
The bay gelding is meeting only Class 4 opposition tonight, so it doesn't seem like a tall order for him.
Being drawn in gate 3 is also a great advantage for this horse with pace.
In his latest start on Aug 11, Ettijah led all the way over tonight's course and distance after jumping from gate 10.
His winning time of 1min 11.57sec was creditable.
His other win came in his debut on June 23, when he tracked second before zooming to the lead turning for home to win convincingly by one-and-three-quarter lengths.
That was on the turf and he clocked 1min 11.14sec, also not a bad effort for a Restricted Maiden newcomer.
Le Grange seems to be taking it easy on his charge.
Ettijah earned a rest and has since been working with gusto for his return one month after his last race.
Last week, he caught the eye in his gallop and again displayed plenty of oomph when going through his paces this week.
Although he takes pride of place tonight as the topweight with 58kg, he looks a touch above his 11 rivals. The seemingly lack of speed in the race should work in his favour.
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