3 minute read

Good competitive racing kicked off the New Year with the Steven Burridge trained Absolvido a key stand-out in the final event.

An impressive winner in November, Absolvido  returned from a 39 day break and proceeded to take a good step forward when too strong over 1200m.

A noted backmarker, Absolvido adopted his usual tactics towards the rear in what was a win that had to be seen to be believed.

If one simply paused the race at the turn, you would have given Absolvido little chance.

Drifting wide around the turn, Absolvido gave his rivals a big start, before really knuckling down and savaging the line down the outside.

A key sectional star, Absolvido returned a new career peak and is clearly a five-year-old trending the right way.

Only lightly raced, Absolvido has now won three of his nine career starts, including three minor placings.

Absolvido improved six pounds to return a Timeform rating of 75+ and creates plenty of interest moving forward.

In his maiden preparation we saw Burridge stretch him out to the mile, breaking his maiden status over 1400m.

This preparation, he has been kept to 1200m and is expected to improve further when stepped up in trip.

Over the shorter trips, he is forced to settle a long way back, however when stepped up beyond 1200m, he may be able to adopt a more forward position.

Regardless, his closing splits are very impressive and if able to replicate them over further, there certainly appears more wins in store for the son of Rip Van Winkle.

Earlier in the program the Mark Walker trained Federation  did a great job when breaking his maiden status in the second event.

Formerly trained by Team Snowden, Federation placed in two of his four starts and while no match for My Dreamliner in his Singapore debut, he clearly relished the step up to 1200m last Tuesday.

Ridden by Vlad Duric, Federation settled just off the speed before railing up on the turn to take the lead entering the straight.

Displaying a good turn of foot, Federation proceeded to draw clear of his rivals, racing away to score by 2.5L.

Improving five pounds on his Singapore debut, Federation remains open to further improvement based on his prior best form in Australia.

Only lightly raced, he appears set for a handy career in Singapore and should only improve further both on the turf and up in trip — he is a must for your blackbook.