With three days left before the big day, Thursday's Kranji trackwork session for the Singapore Airlines International Cup and the KrisFlyer International Sprint international contenders was wound down to a quiet pace, with most runners having already had the bulk of their preparation under the belt.The only candidate to send stopwatches flying was last year's SIA Cup winner Jay Peg who put a broad smile on his South African connections with a solid hit-out on the Polytrack, underlining his spot-

With three days left before the big day, Thursday's Kranji trackwork session for the Singapore Airlines International Cup and the KrisFlyer International Sprint international contenders was wound down to a quiet pace, with most runners having already had the bulk of their preparation under the belt.

The only candidate to send stopwatches flying was last year's SIA Cup winner Jay Peg who put a broad smile on his South African connections with a solid hit-out on the Polytrack, underlining his spot-on condition ahead of the $3 million race. A bullish assitant-trainer Nicolas Iguacel could not resist sending out an ominous warning after the workout: "More than ready to defend his title!"

SINGAPORE AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL CUP

After two easy canters on Track 6 (training track outside the backstraight), Herman Brown's star galloper Jay Peg finally gave trackwatchers something to look forward to with a brilliant gallop on Track 2 (Polytrack). With track rider Chris Taylor up, the Camden Park five-year-old cantered off from the 1200m, picked up on the speed at the 800m and sprinted home the last 400m. "I didn't see the work myself as I could only see the backstraight from where I was, but Chris told me he was very happy with the work," said Brown. "He said he kept moving well and bolted up the last two. He's clean-winded, fit and doesn't really need a gallop. The grass track looks in good order, but I went for the Polytrack, as all I want at this stage is to keep him sound and happy. I don't want to overdo things, anyway, as horses can dehydrate quite fast here."

The other galloper to open up a little on the tracks was Sarrera, who worked under the watchful eye of Australian trainer Michael Moroney, who, with Mick Price (Pompeii Ruler) were on hand for the first time at Kranji to see their charges work. Both trainers arrived on Wednesday afternoon and this morning's trackwork was the first time each had laid eyes on the pair since leaving Melbourne last Saturday. "He's a good old traveller and seems to have settled in quite well," said Moroney after watching Sarrera sprint up the final 200m of a gallop in 12.6 seconds. "It was a nice piece of work and he goes into the race in good order," said Moroney. "If there is one little concern, it is his best wins have been right-handed. He won the Queen Elizabeth (in Sydney) last year and then the Doomben Cup (Brisbane) going right-handed, but having said that he does have some quite strong form left-handed as well."

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Price was suitably impressed with what he saw after Pompeii Ruler had a light workout on the Polytrack. "I like what I've seen this morning," said Price. "He's settled in well and (travelling foreman) Pat (Payet) has done an excellent job with him. He's been around the world with him and knows the horse well. The horse looks very settled and relaxed. You do worry about a few things when you send a horse away, but this is a good environment to work a horse in, but in saying that you have to be careful in not doing too much with them because of the humidity."