Grammar parsing problem

grammar-test.p6

#!/home/user/.perl6/bin/perl6
use v6;

grammar TEST {
  rule TOP        { ^ <sentence> $ }
  rule sentence   { <subject> <verb> <object> \. }

  token subject   { 'pigs'  }
  token verb      { 'eat'   }
  token object    { 'pods'  }
}

class Actions {

  has Str $.statement is rw = "";

  method subject ($/) { $.statement = "$/"; }
  method object  ($/) { $.statement ~= "$/"; }

  method verb ($/) {
    if ($/ eq "eat") {
      $.statement ~= " consume ";
    }
  }

}

my $test    = slurp 'test.t';
my $actions = Actions.new();
my $result  = TEST.parse($test, :$actions);

say "Testing for a match: ", ($result) ?? "yes" !! "no";
say "Statement found:     " ~ $actions.statement;

test.txt

pigs eat pods.

It doesn't match as is. But if you delete the first newline (line 1 of test.txt) and remove the first \s*, it suddenly works...