Time to cash out on a quiet morning

With the races set to be run on Saturday, there was little action on the training track and, on a morning like that, it is sometimes hard to stifle a yawn.

Few horses entered for the weekend will be out running against the clock.

Luckily though, trainer Alwin Tan did the faithful a favour.

He sent Cash Out - his runner in Race 8 - for a winding-up gallop and the "old fella" clocked 40.5sec for the 600m.

Simon Kok did the steering on the former racer known as My Horse.

Cash Out has been a good one to have in the yard. Already a nine-year-old, he has been paying for his keep.

Indeed, it was as recently as July that he put money in the kitty, when finishing third in a 1,100m sprint.

He might have lost his way to the winner's enclosure but he is still game for a gallop.

That said, he was - as far as we could tell - the solitary weekend warrior to show up for a workout.

But the morning was not a total loss. Several others who have races coming up in the near future, were put through their paces and they came across as being fit and focused.

Harry Dream, who found plenty of support when running fourth to First Bowl in a 1,000m dash on Aug 21, had Spirit Of Big Bang for company when running the 600m in 38.6sec.

The mare from Michael Clements' yard is slowly garnering a big fan base and it has much to do with the dogged determination she demonstrates in all her races.

To date, she has three wins. The last one was in March and she looks overdue for another success.

As for Spirit Of Big Bang, he is the real deal.

With five wins, eight runner-up spots and two third placings, he can stare down the best at Kranji - and not blink.

His last four runs produced four second-place finishes.

It must have been tremendously frustrating for Clements and the Team Cheval & Goldenhill Stable. But they will take comfort in the fact that their Irish-bred seven-year-old is as game as they come.

Watch out for him when he next goes to the races. He could and should break that sequence of exasperating seconds with a well-deserved win.

Then there was Big Hearted.

Another one from Clements' closet, he worked with gusto, running out the 600m in 39.1sec.

It seems so long ago that he lifted the 2020 Singapore Gold Cup. But his connections probably have eyes on the big ones coming up in the closing months of the season, the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (1,800m) on Oct 15 and another shot at the Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup (2,000m) on Nov 19.

Last year saw him lose out in the Stewards' Cup when second to Mr Malek and he was second again in the Singapore Derby won by Hard Too Think.

Big Hearted is like a quiet assassin. You know he is there but you just do not know when he will strike.

So take note of the name. He has got something in his cross hairs and it is just a matter of when before he squeezes the trigger.