By Michael Lee, Singapore Turf Club
After Trumpy scored last week to inch closer to a Singapore Gold Cup start, stablemate On Line followed suit with a similar feat on Saturday.
Around 20th in the order of entry on 70 points before the running of the $70,000 Class 3 race over the Polytrack mile, On Line was just like Trumpy in need of a win to still be in with a chance.
The O’Reilly six-year-old pulled it off but only by the skin of his teeth. Last for most of the way, he only got a wriggle-on from the circle, but still had it all to do with Pennywise (Shafiq Rizuan) going hand over fist upfront.
Favourite Special Ops (Danny Beasley) took a while to wind up but looked home when he darted to the rails while On Line just kept whacking away down the middle of the track.
At the wire, the trio of horses finished locked together with the photo print giving the nod to On Line by a head from Special Ops, who just nutted Pennywise out by a nose for third place. The winning time was 1min 38.91secs for the 1600m on the all-weather.
While On Line may still be one of the fringe runners for the blue riband on November 14 in spite of the ratings hike following Saturday’s success, Clements was in two minds about his participation regardless of which way the handicapper’s knife slices and dices.
“On that win, he should be thereabouts, around the cut-off mark, or just below. He may get in if a horse or two drop out,” said Clements.
“If he runs on like this, it would be tempting to run him (in the Singapore Gold Cup) with a low weight (50kgs), but the thing is we tried him in Group company before and he hasn’t quite measured up.
“Initially, we thought he could be a Group horse over a distance, but he seems to be more in his element in this class (3). So, at this stage, I’d say he’s an unlikely starter, but you never know.
“Today was the right trip for him, he’s been looking for such a race for a while. We had him in a couple of sprints before that, he ran in a 1400m race at his last start and was running on.
“He had two seconds on the Polytrack over this distance before, and Oscar rode him well. He left him alone at the back and they were very strong to the line.
“I wasn’t sure about the inside, but from where I watched the race, the angle usually favours the outside horses.”
After leading for the best part of the first two thirds of the season, the Singapore champion trainer has gradually trailed off current leader Mark Walker following a lean spell in the last couple of months, but can look forward to ending with a flourish in the last big race of the season.
He currently has around seven horses in the running for the Singapore Gold Cup, namely defending champion Big Hearted, Top Knight, Ocean Crossing, So Hi Class, Elite Incredible, Prosperous Return and Trumpy, and possibly On Line now.
A trainer can have runners that fill up to 50% of a race field. Unless there are late scratchings, the Singapore Gold Cup usually accommodates its capacity field of 16 horses.
With Walker having won one race earlier with Brutus (Jerlyn Seow Poh Hui, $43), the eight-winner gap between the two arch-rivals remains – 62 winners for Walker versus 54 for Clements.
Whether On Line takes a stab at the $1 million prizemoney up for grabs in the Singapore Gold Cup or not, he has already proven to be a handy moneyspinner for Thai champion owner Falcon Racing No 7 Stable with more than $300,000 earned from his record of five wins and nine placings from 26 starts.
At odds of $52, On Line stretched the miserable day for favourite backers on Saturday, with outsiders having ruled the roost from Race 1, including three at three-figure odds namely Sayonara ($106), The Wild Prince ($182) with the biggest boilover coming from Fate To Win ($216).
It was only in the next race after On Line that a first elect finally bucked the trend, with $11 favourite Arion Passion (Oscar Chavez) narrowly claiming the $30,000 Class 5 race over 1000m.
