‘Secret Weapon’ all fired up
Walker's youngster shows up on training track
On a morning when there was little action on the training track as far as Saturday's runners were concerned, clockers were relieved to see trainer Mark Walker's youngster Our Secret Weapon stretch out nicely on the Poly.
He wasn't asked to do much and he ran out the 600m in 42.6sec.
Down to contest Race 8 on Saturday, it will be the first time that he lines up in open company - even if it's a Class 5 contest.
Having raced i n the very competitive "Restricted" races where precocious youngsters are known to bare their teeth like young warriors, Class 5 should be a different kettle of fish - and a welcomed change for the three-year-old.
When Our Secret Weapon ran second to Tuesday on debut in August last year, racegoers wondered aloud if, indeed, Walker had a "secret weapon" in his yard.
After all, it was an impressive debut. With Hakim Kamaruddin in the saddle, Our Secret Weapon attempted to lead all the way but he had no answer when Tuesday came charging home over the concluding stages.
Still, his name went into numerous notebooks as a horse to follow.
And why not? The son of Outreach had gone into that race on the back of two good wins at the trials.
Both times he had Vlad Duric doing the steering and both times he won rather convincingly.
However, after that loss to Tuesday, Our Secret Weapon couldn't replicate that effort in his four subsequent starts.
Three of those races were in Restricted company.
He next faces Class 5 rivals over the flying 1,000m and if he can reproduce some of the speed that we know he possesses, he could land some tasty bets.
The other runner who showed up for exercise was Green Star. He took it easy, running the 600m in 43.5sec.
Green Star is a last-start winner but he will be having his first start in 11 months and it's a Class 3 event. So, there could be excuses.
Still, he seems to relish the mile and, having won on debut, we know that he races well when fresh.
Formerly with Jason Lim, he is now being prepared by trainer KY Young.
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