Cyclone alert on Sunday

Look at it any which way, it is still a double-header at Kranji on Sunday. Sure, top billing must go to the Group 1 Lion City Cup.

It is our premier sprint race and dangling in front of the 11 runners is a juicy $300,000 carrot.

It is Race 11 on the 12-race card and it is marked to get off at 5pm.

But coming up a half-hour earlier is another blockbuster of a race.

It does not carry a fancy label like the Lion City Cup.

But the 10th event at Kranji – which rolls off at 4.30pm – is a super race and a worthy precursor, or “opening act”, to the main attraction.

It is simply identified as a 1,600m Class 1 event with a $100,000 purse. But, to its credit, it does have a simmering cast of crowd favourites.

Sure, the Lion City Cup will parade Lim’s Kosciuszko as its star.

But the Class 1 affair does have Singapore Gold Cup winner Hongkong Great – and, with his rating of 105, he is box-office stuff.

The other thing about Race 10 is that it has a great supporting cast.

And, on the training track on Wednesday morning, we saw two of them being put through their paces.

Cyclone had his race jockey, Ronnie Stewart, on board when running the 600m in 39.5sec, while Krisna Thangamani galloped Mr Black Back in 39.4.

Incidentally, the duo are the second and third-highest rated gallopers in the race. Cyclone has a 92-point rating and Mr Black Back is at 89. Both are six years old and, right now, the sky’s the limit.

To be plying their trade in the top class is a credit to their ability.

After all, Cyclone has had just 11 race starts while Mr Black Back sits on 10.

From Tim Fitzsimmons’ yard, Cyclone gets into the reckoning on that showing two starts back when he finished a gallant second to Lim’s Kosciuszko in the $1 million Group 1 Kranji Mile.

And that last-start effort when eighth to Kharisma in the Group 3 Rocket Man Sprint over the 1,200m would have served as a good “top-up” ahead of Sunday’s assignment over the longer trip.

Owned by Buffalo Stable, Cyclone’s solitary win from 11 Kranji starts was over the 1,400m.

That was on Oct 22, 2022 and, in opening his Kranji account, he was doing his best work late in the race.

He then hit a dull patch. In his next nine outings, he was never able to find himself in the winner’s circle.

His best showing was that second in the Kranji Mile and before that, on Nov 19, he ran a scorcher under Stewart for third in the $1 million Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup, won by Hongkong Great.

Cyclone looks fine-tuned and he is ticking over nicely for Sunday. Such is his condition that it will not surprise anyone to see him blow away his rivals.

Well, Mr Black Back might have something to say about that claim.

It was just two starts back, on June 11, that he won over the track and trip. And his showing at a 1,000m trial on Aug 15 – which he won in 59.99sec – was a gem.

Formerly under Fitzsimmons but now with Richard Lim, Mr Black Back can stay all day. We saw him do just that on Oct 15, when he led all the way to score an emphatic victory over the 1,800m.

That day, he had Manoel Nunes in the saddle and it was the second leg of a race-to-race double following a win over the 1,400m on Oct 2.

Like that win over the 1,800m, Mr Black Back – then under Vlad Duric – led from go to whoa and never gave his rivals a look-in.

Like a couple of other in-form runners in the race – namely Michael Clements’ Pacific Emperor and Cavalry – Mr Black Back has been prepared to perfection.

Give him your fullest attention.