KEY POINTS:
A pleasing gallop and an encouraging defection from the field has Wayne Hillis smiling as he heads Dezigna into Sunday's S$3 million ($2.7 million) Singapore Cup.
Dezigna was the first international horse to arrive in Singapore for the invitational group-one event and Hillis is delighted at the way the horse has settled in.
"Understandably he lost a bit of weight on the flight, but he rounded out again nicely."
Dezigna ran home the last 600m of his solo work at Krangi yesterday morning in a so-so 37.4, but Hillis was very happy. "That's all I wanted him to do."
Like all fellow trainers, Hillis is not disappointed over the defection of Hong Kong's invited runner, Champions Gallery.
Hong Kong-based German trainer Andreas Schultz decided against the trip with one of his stable stars, who finished third to Vital King and Floral Pegasus in the Hong Kong Derby last month.
But Dezigna will still face plenty of talent - this will be far and away the toughest test of his career.
Japan is represented by Cosmo Bulk, whose trainer, Kazunori Tabe, won the race last year and Shadow Gate, from the stable of Yukihiro Kato.
England's Clive Brittain, a veteran of international competition, will produce Kandidate, who was unplaced behind Invasor in the Dubai World Cup and another great traveller, South Africa's Mike De Kok has Oracle West in Singapore.
Oracle West finished second to Vengeance Of Rain in this year's Dubai Sheema Classic and subsequently finished sixth in the Queen Elizabeth Cup in Hong Kong, where he was a late replacement for his stablemate Mullins Bay.
De Kok is confident of a big race from Oracle West, the highest internationally rated horse in the field on 119.
French-based English trainer Richard Gibson prepares Doctor Dino, who at his last start finished third to multiple group one-winning Dylan Thomas in the group one Prix Ganay at Longchamp.
The locals include Laurie Laxon's trio, Ace Armada, Royal Admiral and former smart New Zealander Crusoe.
Ace Armada and Crusoe gained automatic entry with recent victories in the Singapore Guineas and 4YO Mile respectively.
New Zealand jockey Vinny Colgan will ride Dezigna and former New Zealand trainer Steven Burridge is flying Glen Boss to Singapore to handle local runner King And King.
Prizemoney of S$30,000 is paid to the runners finishing sixth to 10th.
* The Xcellent camp is "not unhappy" with the 57kg handicap allotted the horse for the A$1 million ($1.1 million) Stradbroke Handicap on June 9.
It means Xcellent will end up topweight in the famous 1400m sprint with the 60.6kg topweight, Takeover Target, almost certain not to run.
"It's perhaps 1kg more than we were hoping for, but it is less than the weight for age rating and he's won a group-one 1400m weight for age race," said co-trainer Paul Moroney.
Moroney said Xcellent had flown through last week's three-horse jumpout at Matamata and would gallop again this morning.
"He remains perfectly sound," said Moroney.
"We took some blood off him this week. The fitness indicators showed he was a little away from full fitness, but not incredibly so.
"He's full of himself and should be at a pretty high level of fitness in a couple of weeks."
Gee I Jane, desperately unlucky in last year's Stradbroke, was given 54.5kg.
Trainer Neville Couchman threw off the disappointment of yet another unlucky run in Saturday's BTC Cup and is looking forward to the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke.
"The gloss on her coat after Saturday's race is unbelievable and her trackwork rider said she's ready to run through a brick wall."
