SINGAPORE - Hot Gold, who is entered for Friday's Open Benchmark 83 event over the mile, made his intentions known with a good win in his trial at Kranji yesterday.
Ridden by John Powell, Hot Gold was a tad slow when they cleared the gates but he made a lightning move at about the 700m mark to zip by early leaders LIGHT BRIGADE and POWERFUL WARRIOR.
From then, there was no catching him. Five lengths clear with 250m to go, he wasn't asked to do much by Powell but still had enough in the tank to put daylight between himself at the rest.
Hot Gold, who is prepared by Cliff Brown for Gold Stable, put together a back-to-back winning double leading into the EW Barker Trophy where he was found wanting over the 1,400m trip. After a rough run, he finished down the course.
However, the opposition he met that day were close to the cream of the crop, so there were plenty of excuses.
He meets a much easier lot on Friday and, with this trial win under his belt, he will be in it for a long way.
brian@sph.com.sg
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