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When Japanese mare Makanani suddenly loomed at the 300m in the Group 3 Moonbeam Vase (1600m) three weeks ago, trainer Hideyuki Takaoka got a bit excited.
The placid Japanese 63-year-old usually stays cool even when El Dorado wins three Singapore Gold Cups for him.
But when he saw apprentice jockey Joseph See drive Makanani into a clear gap in a bid to peg back leader Eye Guy, the adrenalin rush started to pump through.
The hopes died just as quickly as they appeared, though. The Black Tide five-year-old stayed one-paced when the faster-finishing Elite Excalibur (Ben Thompson) shot past.
Takaoka was still happy with the sixth place, just over two lengths off Elite Excalibur. It was a much better run than her last two forays at Group level – Group 2 Chairman’s Trophy (1600m) and Group 3 Fortune Bowl (1400m) when she finished out of the placings.
He knew he had his ticket to the race he had long pencilled in for the Masa Otani-owned mare – this Saturday’s $1.5 million Group 1 Kranji Mile (1600m).
“I was very happy with her run in the Moonbeam Vase,” said Takaoka who boasts one Kranji Mile to his name, Better Life in 2012 when it was then sponsored by Panasonic and was the first Leg of the Singapore Triple Crown series.
“She ran better than expected. There were some very good horses in the race, like Elite Excalibur, Blizzard (third) and Preditor (fifth) that she will meet again in the Kranji Mile.
“She has come out of that race well. There is not a big difference between her condition and now, but I would say she has improved a little.”
Takaoka is currently in Hokkaido to attend a breeze-up sale and will be back on Thursday. During his absence, he has left the training of his horses, including Makanani’s, into his assistant-trainer Ryohei Hatano’s able hands.
“I’ve been getting reports from Ryo. She’s been working well,” said Takaoka.
“It’ll still be a very tough race for her. She had only 51.5kgs in the Moonbeam, now she will have only 1.5kgs off the others (55.5kgs versus 57kgs).”
Takaoka will saddle quite a small but select team of runners this Saturday – beginning with last-start winner Wind Trail who lines up alongside stablemate Party Maker in the opening event of the twilight meeting, the $50,000 Southern Legend 2018 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1600m which goes to post at 3.45pm.
The Screen Hero four-year-old should be one of the favourites even if his last-start win was wrongly timed as a new course record for the 1800m trip on the Long Course.
That day, Wind Trail with Marc Lerner up, came with a withering run to account for his Class 4 rivals by 1 ¾ lengths, recording the time of 1min 45.7secs, 0.61 second better than Superb’s record established in 2010.
It turned out that the automatic timing system was triggered a fraction after the gates crashed back, hence the erroneous time. The actual time should have been 1min 47.14secs, which is 1.44 seconds slower than the time wrongly clocked.
“Wind Trail has maintained his condition after the win. It’s been only three weeks between runs,” said Lerner.
“He’s in good form, he had a good maintenance gallop this week, but he’s up against some good horses this time, like James Peters’ horse (Middle Kingdom) or Stephen Gray’s, Our Pinnacle.
“This race is for him to earn more points as the Singapore Derby is his main objective.”
The Group 1 Singapore Derby (1800m) is the third Leg of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge and will be held on July 21.
Makanani will also be ridden by Lerner, who has yet to land a feature race at Kranji since beginning his stint at the end of last year.
Lerner, who won a few feature races in Germany before beginning his Kranji stint, said that Makanani was as good as Takaoka could get her before the Kranji Mile.
“I don’t usually ride her in trackwork, it’s Ryo who does, but I rode her at her final gallop around the back yesterday and she’s in good shape,” said Lerner.
“It was more of a maintenance gallop as she had a more full-on gallop last week. It’s a tough race, but she’s done nothing wrong and deserves to have a go.”