Mr Black Back all the way in trial 

A runaway winner over the mile on June 11, Mr Black Back is being aimed at another quickfire win.

When trainer Richard Lim will next send the six-year-old Australian-bred to the races is not yet known.

But that race, and perhaps another win, should come sooner rather than later.

After all, he did push his galloper into real action just five days after a trial on July 18.

That day, Mr Black Back finished eighth of 12 in a shorter Class 2 contest over 1,400m.

Well, that is water under the bridge. On the day, Mr Black Back could not get into a front-running rhythm.

Compounded by a “check”, when approaching the 250m, he was left with too much to do.

Well, the next time Lim sends his charge to the races, it could be a different story with a better ending. That is, of course, if Mr Black Back can bring his trial form to the racetrack.

The six-year-old was in his element at the trials on Tuesday morning.

Ridden by Manoel Nunes, who has been doing a lot of riding on Lim’s horses, Mr Black Back was out in front at the get-go and never surrendered the lead.

Then again, that is how the son of Snitzel likes to race and it showed.

For the early part of the 1,000m hit-out, Mr Black Back kept Luxury Brand at bay, with Hongkong Great holding third.

Into the final stretch and, with the finish in sight, Nunes still had Mr Black Back on a tight grip.

But it was then that Hongkong Great decided to make a race of it.

The 2022 Singapore Gold Cup winner extricated himself from third spot and gave chase.

But it was too little too late for the Ricardo Le Grange-trained runner and apprentice Rozlan Nazam.

Over the final furlong, the 89-point rater Mr Black Back proved too smart for Hongkong Great, who holds a rating of 105.

When the pair hit the line, Mr Black Back – a three-time winner – prevailed with half-a-length to spare.

The Donna Logan-trained Luxury Brand stayed on for third, a further length behind.

Then again, to see Mr Black Back hold the momentum over the final furlong was to be expected.

After all, he had led all the way in races much longer the trial trip of 1,000m.

It was on Oct 15, 2022, that he led his rivals on a merry chase over the 1,800m. Nunes was astride.

Before that, he again played catch me if you can when winning over the 1,400m, under Vlad Duric.

So it was, we saw him get better and better as the trial progressed and it was no surprise that he clocked 59.99sec for the trip.

It also happened to be the fastest of the three trials that were run.

Incidentally, Mr Black Back was trained previously by Tim Fitzsimmons, until June 2023.

It looks like his current handler Lim can enjoy a win – or two – from him in the coming months.

Earlier, in the first trial of the morning, the Fitzsimmons-trained King Of Sixty-One proved too good for his two rivals.

Ridden by Duric, who landed a double for Fitzsimmons on Aug 13, King Of Sixty-One worked hard for the win and eventually prevailed by a massive 6¼ lengths.

But it never did look like it would be that sort of runaway success.

Until the 600m, King Of Sixty-One still had the dirt kicked back onto him by newcomer Navy Seals – who was having an Official Race Trial – and Star Express, who was out for a practice.

But once the straight was reached, and when Duric pushed the buttons, the four-year-old lengthened strides to put daylight between himself and the rest.

Because of the slow pace in the early part of the hit-out, King Of Sixty-One clocked just a modest 1min 02.11sec.

But Fitzsimmons would have been pleased, as it was his charge’s first “win” in six attempts at the trials.

As for breaking the duck in an actual race, that has still to come.

But having finished runner-up on four occasions, including that last-start effort on July 30 when second to Nimbus Cloud, the time seems ripe for the “King” to reign.