STREET OF DREAMS OUT OF RAFFLES

Rising star abstains from Gl race, but stays the course for Kranji Mile and S’pore Derby

- Michael Lee

The Group 1 Raffles Cup will roll around next Saturday, but Singapore's second 2023 feature race is robbed a little of its gloss with Street Of Dreams giving it a miss.

To be fair, his connections did intimate after the latest instalment of his six-in-a-row on March 4 that the $300,000 mile event did not quite fit the agenda, even if trainer Steven Burridge did not rule it out entirely.

That door left cracked open gave his fan club a sliver of hope, but they would be disappointed.

Joe Singh's Street Of Dreams is the horse who has set pulses racing the most in the last five months.

A Maiden winner in October, the Dundeel four-year-old has skyrocketed through the ranks to suddenly stamp himself as the new drawcard in elite events, with stellar wins at the last two Kranji Stakes A events (1,400m, 1,600m).

Burridge was quick to assure that his stable star had not gone amiss, and that the decision to bypass the Raffles Cup was merely strategic.

"Joe didn't want to keep pushing him. He was actually adamant after the last win that he was not that keen on the Raffles Cup," said the Australian trainer.