China Horse Club galloper Karisto bounced back to the winner’s circle with a last-stride win in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1200m on Saturday.
The Written Tycoon seven-year-old was not too long ago regarded as one of Kranji's upwardly mobile sorts when prepared by ex-Kranji trainer Lee Freedman, especially in the wake of his gun second to fellow CHC mainstay Grand Koonta in a Class 1 event in September 2020.
However, that was to be an anticlimactic end to his dynamic progression.
In 12 subsequent starts, Karisto finished on board only once, with his ratings plummeting from 82 to 65, a change in handling to trainer Michael Clements not helping much in rekindling any spark back.
There has been no real hint the tide had turned of late, other than a few closer finishes, but the Karisto of old finally stepped up to the plate on Saturday.
Hugging the rails for Louis-Philippe Beuzelin in midfield, the chestnut was strung up in traffic behind a wall of horses at the top of the lane. When clear air popped up on the outside of War Pride at the 300m, he quickly traversed through to settle down for a good go with favourite Brutus (Shafiq Rizuan), before crossing the line locked together.
The judge's photo gave the nod to Karisto by a short head with War Pride third another half-length away, just holding Harry Dream (Shafrizal Saleh) off by a head. The winning time was 1min 9.64secs for the Long Course.
The return to form - and the winner's circle in almost two years since his only Kranji win on January 10, 2020 - didn't happen overnight, but Clements said the engine had only been in sleeping mode, just needing to be dropped back to the right class to be switched back on.
"He was racing high in the ratings when he got to us," said the Zimbabwean-born trainer.
"He's actually been running fair races, he had a couple of placings last year in Class 3. He never ran a terrible race.
"We've dropped him in class and he had a nice freshen-up since November.
"He's been showing okay form on the tracks, and he had a good barrier, and the way the race panned out suited him.
"We actually thought the 1200m might be on the short side today, but he ran on nicely.
"Louis also rode him well. He was again his usual strong rider to the line."
With that second win from 28 starts that also produced eight placings, Karisto ($75) has now hit around the $185,000 mark for the China Horse Club.
Boosted by that early win, the Clements-Beuzelin-CHC trio were smacking their lips for a two-from-two with the better-backed Resolution three races later in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1100m, but the Toronado five-year-old never flattered despite an ideal spot in transit, to beat one home.
It was the unsupported Doc Hudson ($124) who took the shortest way home along the rails to hand Malaysian jockey Mark Ewe his first 2022 win.
