There were some impressive winners in Singapore over the weekend with two competitive meetings and several stakes races run at Kranji on Sunday.
Sky Rocket was able to return to the winners circle with a win in the Kranji Stakes B (1600m) on the Polytrack after not quite measuring up in the Group 1 Singapore Derby (1800m) the start prior in July.
Settling off midfield for much of the race, the Stephen Gray-trained runner was able to make good ground in the straight to run out a half length winner over the well tried King Louis in a terrific battled, Gold City some three lengths back in third.
Sky Rocket, a lightly raced five-year-old ran to a new career peak Timeform rating of 90 in his first outing on the polytrack and is building a handy career record with four wins from just the nine outings.
Trainer Stephen Gray indicated that the son of Darci Brahma will be aimed at races like the Singapore Gold Cup and Raffles Cup with the El Dorado Classic the likely next target on the radar.
King Louis in second would not have lost any admirers looking the winner at one point after bursting out of the pack and ran to a Timeform figure of 87, well below the 99 rating he ran to when runner up in the Singapore Guineas earlier in the year.
It was also his first outing on the Polytrack and he will definitely be competitive in some feature races going forward this preparation.
Later in the day Saraab upstaged his form fancied rivals with a narrow win in the Kranji Stakes B over 1000m, the top four all finishing within a neck of each other.
The top three all came from off the speed on the turn, with Mokastar in fourth the only one in the top seven who was on the speed in the run indicating they set a fairly decent tempo early on.
Sarrab ran to a new career peak Timeform figure of 87 with the next three Al Green, Marine Treasure and Mokastar all running to a figure of 90, the favourite Zac Kasa in fifth producing a disappointing effort.
Pennywise certainly looks a horse to follow going forward after he returned to the winners circle in the Class 4 Premier over 1200m.
Winning the first two legs of the juvenile series, Pennyise then went on the make plenty of ground when fourth in the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horseshoe and off a freshen up on Sunday led all the way for a handy two length win over Keepitup with Crouching Sun third.
Pennywise ran to a new career peak Timeform figure of 85, six pounds above his second win over Autumn Assault in the Magic Millions Stakes (1200m).
Now having won three of his four starts, the Ricardo Le Grange-trained runner will continue to make his way through the grades on the way to bigger wins in his career.
After not getting an invitation to the Korea Cup in Seoul, McGregor stayed home and proved too good in the Kranji Stakes B (1600m) on Friday night.
Settling up on the speed in third, jockey Vlad Duric bided his time before producing the eight-year-old gelding and despite tiring late was able to win by a length and a half from Robin Hood, Justice Smart a further length back in third.
McGregor who has now won seven of his 40 starts ran to a Timeform figure of 89, a new career peak at the ripe age of seven and the Michael Clements-trained runner is in career best form.
Favourtie Dicton was disappointing and unable to replicate his strong effort to win two weeks ago.
