Tributo serves notice of form

Trainer Stephen Gray, who pulled off a terrific treble on Feb 25, is not about to rest on his laurels.

Sure, he drew a blank at the just-concluded meeting with second-placed St Alwyn coming closest to winning.

But he has got a nice six-pack entered for Sunday’s races and should they not bring in the desired results, he can always count on other runners in the near future.

One of them could be a horse named Tributo.

We saw him at the trials on Tuesday morning. He did not win that hit-out. Indeed, he took second behind Golden Sentience.

But the manner in which he disposed of the 1,000m saw his name scribbled into many notebooks.

Ridden by Vlad Duric and jumping from gate No. 3, Tributo was snagged back to sit in sixth spot when the field made that sweeping turn at the far side.

With Marc Lerner leading the way on Golden Sentience and hotly pursued by Fiddlestick (Mohd Zaki) and Roda Robot (Wong Chin Chuen), Duric and Tributo did not look like they would put an indent in at the finish.

But a furlong out and, when the placings looked settled, they joined in the fray, making it a line of four in that charge to the post.

But a win was not forthcoming. In a thrilling finish which saw a nose and a short head separate the top three, Golden Sentience hung in there to win in a time of 1min 1.27sec.

Tributo, who was doing his best work late, took second place, clocking 1:01.28 for the trip. Fiddlestick was third.

While the record books will have Golden Sentience as the winner, full marks must go to Tributo for his valiant effort.

A four-year-old by Capitalist, Tributo has two second-placed finishes. It could easily have been a win and a second.

Last time out, on Feb 4, Tributo finished a head behind the winner Star Legend in a 1,200m sprint on grass.

Having to race wide for most of the journey, his effort under Duric was commendable.

But Tributo is better than that. Gray has been adding the polish to what is already a shiny specimen of a racehorse and, from what we saw of him at the trials, he is coming into a rich vein of form.

Watch him at his next start. He could be the one they might all have to beat.

As for the James Peters-trained Golden Sentience, it was his fourth attempt at the trials and his first win.

His two race starts on Jan 7 and Jan 28 were also uneventful.

Perhaps now that he has tasted victory, he could bring that form to the races. Keep him on your radar.

There was plenty of interest in the second trial of the morning when Prosperous Return made an appearance after a long absence from the track.

However, there was little to cheer about.

Prosperous Return never did land a punch, eventually finishing fifth of seven in that hit-out which was won by Nate’s Champion.

Still, it was good to see that the 96-point rater is on a comeback journey after being off the scene since landing the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (1,800m) in October.

Hopefully, that unimpeded run at the trials is a sign that his problems are behind him and that he will soon be able to pick up from where he left off.