Smart mare Scrat bounced back from her last-start defeat with a gutsy win in the $80,000 Kranji Stakes C race over 1000m on Sunday.
The 11-horse field was sent on their way as the heavens opened, but the downpour did little to dampen the chances of the Cliff Brown-trained daughter of Jet Spur. Getting a lovely suck behind the fast pace set by Honest Truth (Soo Khoon Beng), Scrat burst through a gap at the 300m, and under hands-and-heels riding from jockey John Powell, sped away to a one-length win from the fast-finishing Coronet Peak (Alan Munro).
Honest Truth was being hailed the winner at the 300m mark when he kicked clear hard up against the rails under the driving rain, but for all his braveness, he was swamped but still did well to run third. The winning time was 1min 0.02sec.
Scrat, a former Queensland sprinter who arrived with a record of one win (1000m) from five starts, showed he needed little introductory time in Singapore when she won on debut, over the five-furlong trip as well.
She was considered a nap at her next run over 1200m seven weeks ago, especially with visiting former Kranji kingpin Joao Moreira in the saddle, but she went off her head in the barriers. Cleared to race, she bolted to the lead, but was a spent force before running third to Taffetas.
Brown said the fact Scrat ($34), who is named after the acorn-obsessed sabre-toothed squirrel in the Ice Age movies, was able to relax behind the early speed battle between Honest Truth, Lively Dragon (Ivaldo Santana), Secret Mission (Manoel Nunes) and Flash Gift (Zuriman Zulkifli) played into their hands, as opposed to her losing the plot just before dispatch last time out.
“There is no way she could have led today. They went too fast for her today,” said the Australian conditioner.
“Besides she was drawn wide (11) and it would have been silly to go forward. She settled off the speed and won a nice race.
“Forget her last run when she played up in the barriers. She has nice ability and I may step her up in distance, but I’ll see how she pulls up first.”
Scrat brought up a training double for Brown after Encosta Zone won the earlier Maiden race over the mile, to cap a good weekend after The Mighty Thor finally opened his account on Friday night.
“That was a very pleasing win by The Mighty Thor. He is owned by a bunch of parents from the Australian International School,” said Brown whose children also attend the same school.
“They have been very patient with this horse and it’s good that he’s finally won a race for them.”
Powell said that the withdrawal of Scrat from a scheduled start last week has in the end worked out in their best interests.
“I’m glad they scratched her last week as she was not quite right and with one more week’s work, it was a blessing in disguise,” said Powell.
“She was in a good spot from the start. When I got her through the gap, she switched through her gears and went right through it.
“I didn’t use the stick on her. I didn’t want to be too hard on her.”
Scrat has now recorded two wins and one third from three runs for stakes money in excess of $70,000 for the Scrat Stable.
