Singapore champion trainer Laurie Laxon will be back in town to see exciting prospect Huka Falls race at Kranji on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
The 66-year-old New Zealander, who landed his seventh title after outbattling rival trainer Michael Freedman in a close contest that went down to the wire till the very last race of the 2012 season, flew to New Zealand three weeks ago to attend his son John’s wedding and is only due back in Singapore on Friday night.
Laxon will not be able to see his three runners (Profound, Firth and Cool Luke) carded at the all-Polytrack meeting on that night, but will certainly not miss Sunday’s mixed-surface meeting where Huka Falls is clearly the pick of the crop of his six-horse team, that also includes Gordon Roberts, Hopkins, Quinta De Lago, Sir Fleetwood and The Giant.
Spruiked as something right out of the box from the time he won all his pre-race debut barrier trials (including one at Ellerslie in New Zealand), the hulking three-year-old by Align has vaulted through the ratings from zero to 85 points after chalking up six wins from seven starts, the latest being in Open Benchmark 83 company in a Polytrack race over 1200m four weeks ago.
The only faux-pas came in last September’s Jubilee Stakes (1400m) when he was well beaten by Hot Gold, but the Silver Fern Racing Stable-owned gelding had some excuses as he did not seem to handle the wet track.
A comfortable barrier trial win under the guidance of race-rider Joao Moreira on Tuesday morning has topped him off nicely for Sunday’s assignment, arguably his stiffest test thus far. Weighted at the minimum weight of 50kg in the $125,000 Open race over 1200m on the Long Course, he will be taking on some of Kranji’s elite sprinters and sprinter-milers namely Yin Xin, Speedy Cat, Red Beard, Valevole and El Padrino.
But the Laxon camp is confident Huka Falls can measure up to that rise in grade, provided the track does not take a soaking as in the Jubilee Stakes.
“We do trial our horses in the week before their race at times, and I must say I’m very happy with his trial this morning. He ran a good time – 1min 0.48sec,” said assistant-trainer Shane Ellis (pictured above) on Tuesday.
“No doubt he’s in a stronger field on Sunday, but he’s spot-on and there is no reason to believe he can’t measure up. Joao will ride him 1.5kg over, but he will still have no weight on his back.
“He’s drawn in barrier six, but he’s a horse that does not have to lead as he can switch on and off.
“The only downside could be the rain. He dislikes the wet, but looking at the way the weather has been holding up lately, we should be okay.”
With ‘black-type’ material written all over him, Huka Falls is all poised to make his Group race debut in two weeks’ time in the Group 3 Three Rings Trophy (1400m), a race in which Laxon boasts a proud record of four wins – Big Easy (2005), Top Spin (2008) and Better Than Ever (2010 and 2011).
“It must have been a long wedding reception, but the boss gets back on Friday night and will be all tuned up for Sunday,” said Ellis cheekily.
“The Three Rings Trophy is his (Huka Falls’) next target, but Laurie will make the final decision after the race. Further down the road we also have the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge in mind, but let’s take it one step at a time.”
The three-part series kicks off with the Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1200m) on March 31, followed by the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) on April 21 to culminate with the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) on May 17.
Super Easy made a cleansweep of all three legs last year.
