3 minute read
Can't help but feel Sunday's Singapore 3YO Sprint was a missed opportunity after Tiger Roar scored easily in the feature event.
A regular pin-up horse in the Singapore Review the son of Wandjina was some query dropping back to 1200m, but such is the case often in racing the fastest horse won.
Already a multiple Class 3 winner, favourite and stablemate Prosperous Return had only won a Class 4 at his last start and under the set weights conditions Tiger Roar was very well placed.
Always easy after the ball, but given he was sent out at 6-1 can't help but feel it was a missed opportunity.
Trained by Michael Clements, Tiger Roar has now won five of his nine starts with his only real failure coming two back when fifth over the mile.
Only seen once over 1200m previously when finishing third on debut, Tiger Roar has won three of his four attempts over 1400m and had already been placed over 1800m.
Quite versatile he took a good step forward on Sunday with his class shining through.
Ridden by Simon Kok Tiger Roar struggled to keep up early when scrubbed along at the tail of the field.
They certainly didn't loaf in front (23.48 for the first 400m) which clearly caught him off guard, however once entering the straight you could see he had picked up the bridle.
Looking for runs, Kok was forced back to the inside but once he saw the gap he quickly burst through.
Asserting his authority late Tiger Roar went on to score by one-and-a-half lengths and returned a Timeform rating of 92.
Not since War Affair in 2014 have seen such a dominant display in the 3YO Sprint with Better Than Ever (2010) and Rocket Man (2009) the other key stand-outs when winning by 3L and 4.5L respectively.
It was Clements' third victory in the Sprint having first won with Kiwi Karma in 2015 before doubling the dose with Countofmontecristo in 2017.
With the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) out this season, Clements had always earmarked the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic over 1400m as Tiger Roar's main target and judging by Sunday's performance he is going to take a power of beating.
After being clearly vulnerable over the shorter trip he was still able to beat them which makes it hard for his opposition to turn the tables next time out.
It's been a while since we've had such a dominant winner of the 3YO Sprint and hoping Tiger Roar can now go on with the job.