Training maestro Ivan Allan rarely gets an itchy trigger finger with a horse, but admitted yesterday that the temptation to run Scintillation over 1,600 metres before the end of his current preparation is becoming stronger.
'I think Scintillation is going to be one of the best milers in Hong Kong next season,' he declared after the three-year-old spreadeagled the Class Two final event yesterday.
'Now that he is settling a bit better in these 1,400-metre races, I'm getting tempted to run him at the mile but it will have to be the right race. We'll see how he progresses and what is available.'
The beautifully bred Danehill gelding built himself a reputation as a hard-pulling horse in his races earlier this season but Allan has typically taken his time and allowed maturity to play its hand.
'The owner [Hui Sai-fun] has been a terrific owner and won many of the big races here so he knows that it can take some patience to develop a horse,' Allan said.
'When Scintillation was getting beaten in those races earlier in the season, I said to him that I felt he had a very good horse, but that he had to be allowed to come into himself. I said if I tried to force him, the horse would burn himself out and Mr Hui let me do as I thought best.'
Allan dropped the gelding back into 1,200-metre races, where the speed suited his mood better, and that further experience tempered Scintillation's attitude for his return to 1,400 metres.
