Fulife Brilliance set and ready
The best from the barrier trials at Kranji on Tuesday morning
If he is anything like his stablemate, Fulife Brilliance does look like he's ready to blossom into a really useful sort.
His stablemate, by the way, is Fulife King, who just a fortnight ago, won a slugfest with Nova Vocal over the flying 1,000m .
The "King" took that race by a nose, justifying his $14 price at the "off". Nova Vocal went off as the $12 hot pick.
Back to Fulife Brilliance.
He is not yet king but he's getting there and his showing at the trials on Tuesday morning would have garnered him many fans.
Ridden by Benny Woodworth, the three-year-old son of Van Nistelrooy won that hit-out by three parts of a length.
Jumping with the pack, he took command of things soon after the start and was two lengths clear of Groenewegen and Wonderful Paint when the field angled out for the run home.
Shortening reins at the 150m mark, Woodworth had Fulife Brilliance humming and they got home ahead of the rest.
Groenewegen (Michael Rodd) stayed on for second, with Sky Rocket (Ben Thompson) working home nicely to claim third.
Fulife Brilliance had a quiet debut, running last in a Class 4 sprint over the 1,200m.
But he's certainly better than that, having won two races in Argentina before being flown out here in January.
Those wins were over the sprint trips of 1,200m (1min 10.19sec) and 1,000m (55.64sec).
Owned by Fulife Elite Performance Stable, who look to be coming into the Kranji racing scene in a big way, Fulife Brilliance must go down as a horse to follow and his breakthrough win could come sooner rather than later.
But if you are on the lookout for a roughie, keep an eye on Top Banana. He could help pad up your wallet at his next start.
At 24 rating points, Top Banana is about as low as one could get at Kranji.
The horse had apprentice jockey Joseph See's boots planted firmly in the irons when he led from pillar to post in the last trial on Tuesday morning.
Although he clocked just 62.80sec for the 1,000m, the effort from that 24-point rater was really good.
At the post, he was three parts of a length in front of Quantum (60 points) who, it must be said, also impressed.
From Hideyuki Takaoka's yard, Top Banana put in his best performance of his 19 race starts when he finished second to Thoth Warrior in a race over the Polytrack 1,100m.
That was in early January it was his last race of the season.
Whatever the problems were, they seem to have been ironed out. Top Banana's trial was as good as it gets for a Class 5 horse and, if anything, he deserves a winning break.
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