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Lion City Cup winner Aramco sent out an ominous sign at his winning barrier trial on Thursday that he might well pick up where he left off.
Settled right behind the leading bunch by Lion City Cup-winning partner Vlad Duric, the Magic Albert six-year-old travelled within his own steam before effortlessly collaring leader Real Success (Shafrizal Saleh) to go and score by a neck.
Aramco has not been seen since his brilliant win in the Group 1 Lion City Cup (1200m) on May 25, a crowning moment not many would have predicted this time last year, when he was racing well, but could not quite make his presence felt in elite company.
But trainer Shane Baertschiger has managed to unlock his true potential this campaign, spacing his runs astutely with sterling results – four wins in five starts to bring up his total tally to nine wins, including the Group 3 Garden City Trophy (1200m) in October and the career pinnacle that was Singapore's premier sprint race six weeks ago.
With the Singapore Sprint Series discontinued, the three feature races that used to make up the challenge have been reshuffled accordingly.
Formerly the grand final, the Lion City Cup is now held in tandem with the Invitational Kranji Mile with a view of turning it into the next KrisFlyer International Sprint in the foreseeable future.
In this year's renewal, Aramco came with a withering run to deny Singapore champion sprinter Lim's Cruiser a three-in-a-row, but he had earlier bypassed the former second Leg, the Group 3 Rocket Man Sprint (1200m) which was captured by ex-stablemate Bold Thruster on May 5.
But the Group 2 Merlion Trophy (1200m) which used to kick off the series and is now held in August (25), is well and truly on Aramco's radar, via a Class 1 race over 1200m next Sunday.
"He's making his comeback next week in a Class 1 race over 1200m," said Baertschiger.
"It's been six weeks between runs. He had a week off after the Lion City Cup and has come back good.
"I was very happy with his trial today. He had the blinkers on - he had the blinkers on at his last trial before the Lion City Cup as well, and he won that, too.
"He will then have seven weeks to the Merlion Trophy. It's on Polytrack and is the last weight-for-age race over 1200m for the year.
"He'll go to the paddocks after that and that would be it for him. There is nothing else for him."
In 21 starts at Kranji, the horse known as Mawahibb when prepared by Team Hawkes (one win over 1200m at Moonee Valley in 10 Australian starts) in Australia, has raced on Polytrack only once – incidentally, in last year's Merlion Trophy when he ran on late to finish eighth, four lengths off the winner Distinctive Darci.