Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
New Zealand-bred six-year-old Tiger Royal is knocking on the door after three thirds and two seconds from his five starts this year, splendid efforts that have surprised his trainer Ryan Bell.
“His past couple of runs have been a lot better than I thought he was capable of,” said Bell. “He’s actually got stronger and is coming through his runs a lot better than what he used to.
“He has really surprised me, and what impressed me last week was his last 100 metres, the way he hit the line, and in another stride he would have won. It is a massive drop in grade this week, and he probably deserves to be nearly favourite.”
Tiger Royal started from barrier five last Friday night and raced in the one-out, one-back position before running home powerfully to finish second, a head behind the pacemaker and $1.30 favourite Nevermindthechaos. The final 800m was covered in 56sec.
At his previous outing, a fortnight earlier, Tiger Royal was a $15 chance who impressed when he raced three wide early and then in the breeze before fighting on grandly to finish second to the brilliant Pinny Tiger when the final 800m was run in 55.1sec.
Flying Rumour, to be driven by Shannon Suvaljko for trainer Mike Reed, looms as the main danger to Tiger Royal. He raced in the one-out, one-back position before finishing determinedly to be a half-length second to Rolling Fire over 2130m last Friday week. That followed a strong-finishing narrow victory over The Miki Taker the previous week.