TONY Cruz and Gary Ng Ting-kueng looked to be forming a powerful alliance which it could pay serious dividends to follow from now till the end of the season.
They took the second of three barrier trials run over 1,050 metres on the equitrack yesterday morning with Ng's promising and lightly-raced Electric Power.
Electric Power was backed by those in the know as if defeat were out of the question but he raced too fresh and too freely, burning himself into the ground in the Class Three event over 1,400 metres won by Wind Dancer.
It was a promising run, nevertheless, as Electric Power was going as well as Wind Dancer, if not better, for much of the way. It was just typical of a horse who was too fresh and racing above himself at the first time of asking.
Yesterday, he was always at the head of affairs under Cruz before easing clear in the straight to win from Neville Begg's highly-promising and unbeaten Chiu Chow Warrior and Alex Wong Siu-tan's Valiant Red.
The one caveat regarding Electric Power's trial is that he is exactly the type of horse who can be flattered by these heats where full racing pressure is not applied. They lend themselves to these free-running types.
Chiu Chow Warrior enjoyed a solid hitout and it is noticeable that those of Begg that have ability are doing plenty of work these days.
