Gray’s promising pair look hard to topple
Sure Will Do can stay unbeaten, Heavenly Dancer should go one better
Trainer Stephen Gray appears to have two aces up his sleeve at Kranji tomorrow.
They are Sure Will Do, who is unbeaten in two starts, and Heavenly Dancer, who also won his first two races before finishing second in his last two starts.
Sure Will do is running in Race 7, while Heavenly Dancer is engaged in the last of 10 races.
From their performances, it is obvious that both horses have the potential to go very far.
The Elaine Chen-owned Sure Will Do, who cost NZ$210,000 (S$198,000) as a yearling, seems like a horse who does not like to be beaten.
The four-year-old New Zealand-bred has won all his four trials and two races.
He won his first three trials and took his form to his first race, an Open Maiden event over 1,200m. Sent out as the $10 favourite, he ran like one. He broke away cleanly and took up the lead on settling down.
He was kept under wraps until shortly after entering the straight. Once clicked up, he lengthened to make it a one-horse race. He beat the hard-ridden Miej by 23/4 lengths in a smart 1min 10.89sec.
That was on Oct 3. He resumed 11/2 months later in a Novice event and again showed his rivals a clean pair of heels, after winning another trial.
He beat another Michael Clements-trained horse, Day Approach, by 21/4 lengths and clocked a faster time, 1min 09.92sec.
He was ridden by champion apprentice jockey Simon Kok on both occasions. Kok has been retained and the combination looks set to set another merry chase in tomorrow's Class 4 Div 1 event over the same course and distance.
While Sure Will Do is the jump-and-run type, Heavenly Dancer is the opposite. He comes from behind.
He came from second-last to win his debut in Restricted Maiden over the Poly 1,000m on March 15, just before the three-month racing shutdown.
Six months later, in Class 4 over the Poly 1,200m, he motored from from slightly behind midfield to win.
In his last two starts, his late surge saw him finish second, behind above-average horses, Bluestone and Chicago Star.
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