Sunday, 17 June 2012: The inside stall for Better Be The One and his penchant for 1000m sprinting makes him the one to beat today in the feature event.
This strongly built Michael Freedman trained sprinter has impressively won six of his eleven career successes to date at the 1000m with four of the wins coming in Australia and two in Singapore.
He looks ideally situated in the ninth event on the card, the S$125K RDA Cup, with the barrier and a certain Brazillian bloke atop all big ticks to go with the trip being perfect.
Joao Moreira riding will instill bettor confidence even though he has not won aboard Better Be The One after two times atop because they know it is a sure thing coming.
Not many fail to score when Moreira has been on more than once and Better Be The One is a proven quality sprinter that is yet to miss paying a dividend on the poly.
His five times on the all weather have yielded three wins and two placings and notably one of those placings came behind Rocket Man, the yardstick that all sprinters are judged by rightly in Singapore.
While his ninth this year in the G1 Al Quoz (1000m) at Meydan beaten just over three lengths was better than it reads behind the big closer Ortensia it does pay to remember what he did last year.
Better Be The One was third in the same race in 2011 beaten heads with the winner being the big South African yardstick sprinter J J The Jetplane.
That career high rating performance is why Better Be The One can put away his rivals today with consummate ease the closing stages if anywhere near that peak.
Forget his last start miss in the G1 Krisflyer (1200m) on wet ground as he had a horror trip working overtime.
Go on his prior effort for second in the G1 Lion City Cup to Rocket Man, as he carried 57.5kg under the WFA scale and today has the same impost but with the ace gate.
Just to show why the Lion City Cup form matters the third and fourth runners home ended up forming the quinella in the Krisflyer, namely Ato and Mr Big.
Captain Obvious is a big grey with dash and panache plus the sprinter can make rivals look second rate when in that all aboard mood.
He has demolished Ato before and second rated Merchant plus rolled Speed Baby, so this now fourteen-race winner must be included today from a handy draw.
Muhammad Firdaus claims on him down to 56kg importantly and it gives the Team Burridge trained sprinter a 3kg swing on the bookweights for the race.
Captain Obvious is not a complicated horse to ride so no surprise that he is unbeaten when ridden by an apprentice in Singapore.
His last start fourth in the Krisflyer, when fresh up since a Meydan campaign, was a brave effort as he boxed on the run home despite an overland trip in transit.
Some super facts make the grey flash stand out even more in that second up he is a three-time winner from five attempts but also his trial form prior to the Krisflyer.
He was awesome in two poly trial wins over May and on the all weather his raceday record is two wins from four outings.
An easy win over Merchant and a close up sixth at G3 are his local poly efforts while at Meydan he won defeating Hitchens then finished fourth in the G3 Al Shindagha behind that same horse.
It should be noted that Krypton Factor was second in the Al Shindagha and also Captain Obvious drew badly in it too whereas he drew well in the win prior on the track.
Two other chances can be found in the RDA Cup and they are Perfect Pins and Coup Align.
Perfect Pins, aptly trained by Leticia Dragon, is a good chance at 54kg with Alan Munro to ride the two-from-three sprinter on the poly and at the 1000m.
Bettors may have preferred the poly master Jose Verenzuela atop but due to suspension the vastly experienced Munro takes the reins.
You can forget his last start miss in the Krisflyer too as the wet ground and what turned out to be an on pace race and finish ensured his hopes were dashed when trapped middle and wide due to a tardy jump.
Prior on the poly fresh up he had gone a massive race under 59kg for second over 1100m and the winner Yin Xin, an up and coming sprinter carried 6kg less.
I like that Perfect Pins has won third up before and also dropping back to 54kg is an appeal bettors simply cannot turn down.
Third in that 1100m poly sprint was Coup Align, which had 3kg less than Perfect Pins and was just half a length behind him at the line.
Today the 1000m specialist (six-from-nine) will get 4kg from Perfect Pins and at 50kg from gate three will have Barend Vorster atop and he can get them out of the gates very smartly.
I can see this natural flyer leading and Captain Obvious sitting outside him with Better Be The One poised behind and Perfect Pins possibly wide or able to slot over into second if Munro can fire him out early.
Either way the gun four will be in the drag race from the outset and giving their backers a good sight.
Better Be The One has never drawn one since racing in Singapore but he is the one you want to be on today.
Enjoy the dash for really good cash.
