Super Salute can greet judge again

It will take a really good horse to beat Super Salute on Saturday.

He goes over his pet trip of 1,200m and on a surface where he won last time in 1min 09.13sec.

With just 50.5kg on his back, it will feel like he is carrying practically nothing as he takes on just nine rivals –which could be whittled down if there are scratchings before the contest.

Then, there is his preparation going into the contest.

On a bright, sunny Tuesday morning at Kranji, Super Salute turned out to be one of the star performers on the training track.

Partnered by Manoel Nunes, who had the reins on all of his three successes, the up-and-comer went out at a steady canter before getting serious to run the 600m in 40.5sec.

Unfortunately, the Brazilian hoop will not be on board Super Salute when he attempts to make it four-in-a-row.

Kranji’s leading jockey, with 19 winners for the season so far, will not be able to make the weight and trainer Jason Lim will have to look elsewhere for a suitable lightweight jockey.

It is a great ride and Lim will have the pick of the pack.

One thing is certain. Whoever gets legged up on Super Salute had better get prepared to flash those brilliant pearly whites for the post-race, photo-taking session.

So far, Super Salute has not put a hoof wrong – except for his bungled start on debut when he still finished fourth less than two lengths off the winner Amazing M.

He then made amends by scoring twice on the alternative surface.

That second one was in November and, like it was at his last start on Feb 12, he came from a midfield spot to blitz his rivals.

His last-start win was top notch, textbook stuff.

More crucially, it came at his first turf test, ticking the right box ahead of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge.

Crowded after the start, he was settled off the rails in midfield.

A furlong out and Nunes fashioned a run. Super Salute was in his element and he took charge of things, coasting home to give Nunes his 600th Singapore win.

He will remember it for a long time. So will Lim and the connections of this “super” horse in the making.

Also impressive on the track were Mimosas and Arya Pakuan. Both have yet to feature in a race at Kranji.

But, from what we have so far seen of them at the trials and on the training track, they have their game faces on and should soon build a fan base.

Mimosas was not out to break any records when coasting over the 600m in 42sec.

As for Arya Pakuan, he had Vlad Duric showing him the ropes when covering the 600m in 40sec.

A son of Sebring, he raced as Jovial Wagon in Australia, where he picked up some cash for finishing third in a race at Sandown Lakeside.

That was in August, 2022, and he was ridden by Mark Zahra.

Now with trainer Stephen Gray, Arya Pakuan has shown himself to be a pretty smart youngster.

It was as recent as Feb 14 that racegoers were given a sneak peek into what the chestnut was capable of doing when let loose in a real race.

That day, at the trials, when ridden by Duric, Arya Pakuan was second last on settling.

But it was a tight field with just five lengths between first and last.

So Duric sat patiently and, at the 300m, began to plot a passage between runners.

Arya Pakuan was up to the challenge. He went after the leading pack, took the fight out of them and did just enough to win the trial by a neck.

Now comes the real part. Can he bring that form to the racetrack and win on his Singapore debut? Well, Gray has done his work. So, too, Arya Pakuan.

The same could be said for Mimosas.

Tim Fitzsimmons has been meticulous in getting his four-year-old ready for his first Kranji race start and the Class 4 event he has picked out for the chestnut looks like a winnable sort of race.

Mimosas has had three trials leading up to his local debut and Tuesday’s gallop on the training track would have topped him up sufficiently for a winning start.

Unlike Arya Pakuan, Mimosas knows what it is like to win a race.

He has done it twice in Victoria. Who is to say he cannot get the ball rolling on Saturday?