The second leg of the Singapore 3yo Challenge looks another Super Easy benefit today, in the tenth race on the card, and he could well become the third hattrick in a row next month.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The last two years of this eagerly anticipated and lucrative turf sprinter-miler series for three-year-olds has seen a sweep winner that takes all legs with Better Than Ever in 2010 and Gingerbread Man in 2011.
Super Easy won the first leg the G3 Singapore 3yo Sprint by over a length with plenty left to call upon and he looks odds on today to nab the second leg, the S$350K G2 Singapore 3yo Classic (1400m).
Then comes the lure of the last leg on a Friday night, the S$500K G1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) on May 18, where he could be shooting for a perfect ten out of ten at Kranji.
The script keeps getting rewritten with this colt and as if the gods had lined up we see Joao Moreira ends his suspension with perfect timing to pilot him today.
Moreira won this race in 2009 aboard the Stephen Gray trained Given Vision and would go on and win the mile aboard the same three-year-old.
Former New Zealand trainers have won the last five Classic's with Royal Star in 2007 for Bruce Marsh, who also prepared Gingerbread Man (2011), then there is Big Maverick in 2008 for Laurie Laxon, who also prepared Better Than Ever in 2010 and of course Gray and Given Vision (2009).
Jumaat Saimee has won it five times (Yorick in 2001, Ninetyfive Emperor in 2003, Itmaybeyou in 2006 and of course Big Maverick in 2008 and Better Than Ever in 2010).
Saimee won all three legs on Better Than Ever and Vlad Duric all three atop Gingerbread Man, so Joao Moreira can repeat the threepeat times three on Super Easy.
Interestingly we find Saimee is on the Gray trained Indicio today, the lone prepared runner by a former New Zealand trainer in the feature.
Last start in the first leg of the 3yo Challenge, the G3 Singapore Sprint (1200m), we saw Super Easy brain them from a perfect sit behind the trio of matching motors up front.
He had to win on the soft sit he got as a runner also owned by the Joy N Happiness stable attacked Speedy Cat and poor old Kaiser was left out on a limb three-wide.
Super Easy stalked then was drawn into clear air by Moreira early in the run home before he pushed the time to win button and whooshed past his main rival, the game in defeat Speedy Cat.
Indicio had a perfect sit behind the throttling trio on the inner and only finished third, so hard to see him turning the tables.
The gate five looks ideal for the Michael Freedman prepared hotpot as it gives Moreira options and if you give him an inch he will take a mile and the win and the trophy with a grin.
The stablemate of Super Easy in Distinction from barrier two may not be the worst chance for a place, as he has won four races and all have come on the turf.
Importantly three have come at 1400m but when you see two starts ago he finished fifth beaten seven and a half lengths over 1400m in the G3 Three Rings Trophy on turf you get perspective.
The winner was Super Easy and he carried 3kg more than Distinction.
If the world ends and Super Easy is to get beaten it will have to be by a runner unscarred by meeting him yet and copping a demoralizing beating.
Who would have thought a filly could be the one to land a glancing blow on Super Easy?
Better Life is a gifted filly that should be unbeaten in four outings but she just missed last start behind an unbeaten long loping strider and rising star in Shuttle Man on the turf over a mile.
It is hard not to be impressed by the Hideyuki Takaoka trained daughter of Smarty Jones and her three wins prior to the narrow second to Shuttle Man were all fantastic.
Her win over 1400m on the turf two starts ago under 57.5kg against Class Four older horses was a five-length obliteration.
Alan Munro knows just how good the filly is and he has ridden enough good horses worldwide to have an opinion worth listening too.
He wants a shot at Super Easy here at 1400m and then at the mile in the G1 Singapore Guineas because he knows his mount can and will run out the trips with ease and has 2000m written all over her.
Takaoka is a master at getting them over ground but patience is the greatest way to train and not many will outwait him with this star filly.
Barrier ten is of no help to Better Life or Munro but he knows relaxing the filly then detonating her is all a matter of timing.
One intriguing fact is Better Life on debut beat a rival again today in Irish Coffee by six lengths and that runner ran a bottler last start for fifth beaten five lengths at G3 behind Super Easy.
Another runner that has not suffered Super Easy-itis (the fear of an unbeaten racehorse) is one of the three Pat Shaw runners in the race in Damo.
All of the Shaw runners have in fact not yet sat the daunting Super Easy examination but Damo is one I think can do Argentina proud.
He is a turfy and already a G1 winner in Argentina over a mile plus after carrying whopper weights in Singapore recently is finally back against just his own age group and set weights.
I suspect Shaw has a plan that if not here then in the G1 Singapore Mile he will be at his peak, as Damo won second up over 1400m on the turf at Kranji in February creaming Trudeau and Jet Stream.
Damo had fresh up finished third to the tidy One More Minute on turf, where he sped to the lead and got absolutely throttled to the home turn, so he has the motor and the fight.
Stephen Baster gets on Damo for the first time and this could be an inspired move by Team Shaw, as he is just riding up a storm in Singapore and is very good at judging pace.
The idea that Super Easy would scare them all away against his own age has become a myth, with the amount prepared to topple him today a credit to rival trainers and owners.
If they see a weakness at 1400m then the plot for his downfall come the G1 Singapore Guineas over a mile is well and truly in play.
Enjoy the feature 3yo Classic where Super Easy has nine other rivals and is shooting for nine out of nine in Singapore.
He beat the Speedy Cat last start and they have nine lives so a Better Life awaits the son of Darci Brahma.
Brahma is a Hindu word meaning 'the god of creation' and there is something spiritually appealing about Super Easy.
