Marine Treasure returned from a six-month layoff a winner though he had to dig deep into his residual fitness to earn the thicker end of the prizemoney by the barest of margins on Friday.
Punters did not seem too concerned by the Manhattan Rain three-year-old’s long absence from the way they confidently backed him down to $15 favouritism in the $38,000 Kranji Stakes D Division 2 race over 1000m, but if there was to be any cause for heart palpitations, it hailed from race-leader Super Joy (Oscar Chavez) who certainly proved hard to overpower inside the last furlong.
Coming off a soft lead from the start, Super Joy was not giving away an inch of ground as Marine Treasure loomed up ominously, but jockey Danny Beasley kept at it and his efforts were richly rewarded as they wore down the leader with every stride to get the money by a nose from Super Joy with Imperial Boy (Wong Chin Chuen) third another two lengths away. The winning time was 59.94 seconds.
Trainer Steven Burridge said Marine Treasure was no world-beater but he had come back a stronger horse after his spell.
“He won his last race last time and we gave him a long spell. He had had a long prep and he just needed time to mature further,” said the Australian.
“He travelled nicely throughout the race and even though the 1000m was a bit short, he ran on very well. The fact he was drawn wide probably worked in his favour.
“He’s no world-beater but he’s done a good job tonight. It’s great for (son) Wade, the Premier Racing Stable and the remaining two other partners, my taxman Andrew Campos and Ronald Shim.
“They have a nice little horse here and I’m sure they will have more fun with him, especially if he goes over more ground. I will probably run him over 1200m next time.”
Beasley said the wide alley was more of a blessing in the end.
“Sometimes, drawing outside in these 1000m races can be a good thing,” said the in-form Australian jockey.
“As long as you keep their momentum up, they will just keep finding. He was very brave and just got there in the last two strides.
“I thought I got there but I was quite surprised the margin was only a nose in the end.”
With that second success and three previous placings from only six starts, Marine Treasure has already brought home close to $90,000 in stakes earnings to the Arc Marine/Premier Racing Stable.
