Singapore racing continues on Monday (23 January) for a 12-race fixture at Kranji Racecourse.
Top class sprinter GOLDEN MONKEY is primed to score a first-up win when he lines up in the $100,000 Kranji Stakes A race over 1200m on turf.
GOLDEN MONKEY has had a stellar career thus far since relocating to Kranji in April last year, boasting a perfect Top 3 strike rate while scoring three times from seven local starts.
The Star Turn gelding claimed the G3 Three-Year-Old Sprint and G2 Three-Year-Old Classic in emphatic fashion before proving himself still highly competitive against elder horses at the highest level, when finishing third in the G1 Lion City Cup (1200m) last season.
GOLDEN MONKEY was last seen finding multiple Group 1 winner LIM’S KOSCIUSZKO too good, but still checked into second over this track and distance while giving a healthy four lengths back to the third-place getter. The Tim Fitzsimmons-trained talent is well prepared with two trials ahead of his first-up assignment and he looks ideally weighted to return with a bang for the new season as he aims towards the forthcoming Four-Year-Old Series.
Elsewhere, Impressive last-start winner HOLE IN ONE can go back-to-back for trainer Ricardo Le Grange when he contests the $75,000 Novice race over 1200m on turf.
HOLE IN ONE was heavily supported on debut in a Polytrack 1100m race, but things just didn’t go his way that day when he was held up from the 450m to the 200m and had to settle for a luckless fifth. Second-up, the Spieth gelding looked suited by switching to this track and distance when he sat on-speed before drawing away to score by 2.75 lengths.
HOLE IN ONE has since trialled well and in a small field of seven this week, his positive racing pattern holds him in good stead and he looks on track to notch a double.
