Exciting Tight Finishes at the Kuala Lumpur Trials

Aeras, Kitsune and Contarelli show their mettle in hit-outs ahead of their next races

- Brian Miller

Tight finishes were the order of the day at the Selangor Turf Club barrier trials at Sungai Besi on the morning of April 8.

Indeed, those who were trackside at 9.10am onwards were treated to some really exciting hit-outs.

Okay, the times returned for the 1,000m on grass and sand were not the thing one would write home about.

But the manner in which the combatants went about their work would have made for some animated chatter among Selangor's diehard racing fans.

Take Aeras for example. Ridden by Andre da Silva, he took the lead on settling and, for most of the trip, he was niggled and nudged by Circuit Mission, the mount of apprentice Nazir Aiman.

Into the straight and Circuit Mission, already a 10-year-old, seemed to have got the edge of the Zacinto six-year-old.

But da Silva was not about to give up the fight to the young apprentice.

He gently but surely held Aeras together and coaxed him home.

The margin was a nose but what mattered was that Aeras seemed to be striding out well after the line, and that in itself was an indication that the last-start winner could well be on his way to a race-to-race double.