Dancing Light sparkles again

Getting the lowdown about a horse is always handy, but working your own ideas into the equation can also pay handsome dividends.

Leading trainer Tim Fitzsimmons is one who certainly took one or two pages out of Dancing Light’s original minders’ book.

But, after he wised up to the raw diamond, a couple of tweaks of his own seemed to have enhanced the recipe, as evidenced by the promising gelding’s emphatic win on Sunday.

The son of Street Boss arrived with a bright red “handle with care” tag around his neck.

Nothing that the fourth-season Australian trainer could not handle, but it has taken a bit of trial and error to finally unlock the three-year-old’s true potential.

“Dancing Light came with a truly bad reputation from his previous pre-trainer. He’s a pretty tricky horse,” said Fitzsimmons.

“We were a bit forced to keep the earmuffs on after he won on debut with that gear on. But I personally felt he is better off without them on.

“The other day, he got spooked in the parade ring and was scratched. We decided to change a few things around this time.

“He went onto the track early with the earmuffs on, but we took them off at the barriers. He was a lot more relaxed.”

Besides the gear tinkering, Fitzsimmons lauded two of the unsung heroes who have worked wonders on Dancing Light.

He credited his track rider Kalimuthu Ganesan for working the horse every day and syce Khairulsham Suyasri for taking good care of him. 

“Both of them have done a great job. Kali never rushes him and has been really patient with him,” he said.

After defeats at his last two outings, both on turf, Dancing Light ($9) was never going to get beaten this time. 

The moment he landed into the driver’s seat from his handy alley, it was game over.

The rest was just a sit-and-steer job for jockey Manoel Nunes, even with Unconquered (Koh Teck Huat) trying to serve it to him through the middle sections. But it was to no avail.

With nothing else from the balance of the field remotely close to putting an indent into the widening margin, Dancing Light strolled to the line, easing down by 43/4 lengths.

It was Lim’s Knight (Danny Beasley) who finished the best of the rest. 

The nine-year-old beat Unconquered for second by a neck.

The winning time was 59.09 seconds for the Polytrack 1,000m.

His connections can dare to dream after such a blitz from a three-year-old, but Fitzsimmons was still treading with care. 

The Tivic Stable-owned gelding’s two wins have both come on the Polytrack, whereas the three-year-old majors – the Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1,200m) on June 18 and Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1,400m) on July 9 – are both turf events.

“I was confident of a good run and he’s duly delivered,” he said.

“He’s a speed horse that loves the Polytrack 1,000m to 1,100m, but we have to consider the three-year-old races. 

“We’ll run him in another Polytrack race. We’ll see how he goes and then make a decision from there.”

Dancing Light has earned nearly $75,000 in prize money for Tivic Stable with that second success.

The dynamic Fitzsimmons-Nunes duo were at it again four races later, when they combined for a double with Resurgence ($22) in the $30,000 Class 5 race over the Polytrack mile.

Nunes himself went one better, with Big Green Hat for Shane Baertschiger, to score a treble.