Dunderdale can start new season with a bang

By his lofty standards, trainer Simon Dunderdale could not end the season with that proverbial bang.

But, then again, his lone entries for the Selangor (Fatal Attraction) and Penang meetings (Good Fight) over the weekend were not disgraced. Both finished second.

Still, he wrapped things up in a pretty package, taking his first champion trainer title on 73 wins.

Well, it looks like the New Zealander has already set his sights on the 2025 season and, to get things going, he has entered 13 runners for the Sungai Besi meeting coming up on Jan 4.

It is the most of all the trainers represented at the season’s opener and, yes, the ninth-season trainer could come away with more than a couple of winners.

As expected, his runners were out in force on the training track and three in particular caught the eye. In no particular order, they were Lightning Gal, Limitless Spear and Fort Mustang.

Lightning Gal did the 600m trip in 38.7sec. The unraced Limitless Spear went over in 40.2sec while the former Kranji galloper, Fort Mustang, clocked an easy 40sec.

Back to Lightning Gal. The filly has yet to break the duck but, in her defence, she has only been to the races four times and they were all pretty decent efforts.

It was on Sept 22 that Lightning Gal took third on debut, beaten four lengths by the winner, Duma.

The three-year-old filly was ridden by one of Kranji’s former pin-up jockeys, Bernardo Pinheiro.

Carrying support in her next three runs, the daughter of Royal Meeting finished fifth on all three occasions.

Well, she has a date with the starter in the Class 5 (B) race over the 1,300m and it will not come as much of a shock to see her break her maiden status.

Limitless Spear is a son of Impending and he will be having his debut on Jan 4.

Dunderdale has been patient with this four-year-old and the only time racegoers got a glimpse of the chestnut was on Dec 17.

That was in a trial and, ridden by apprentice Mohamad Fikri, he was third behind the winner, Ototo.

Limitless Spear takes on some frisky fellas in the Open Maiden sprint on Jan 4 but, you can bet, Dunderdale will have him looking as tight as a piano wire when he trots out to the start.

As for Fort Mustang, he will see action in a Class 5 (A) race over the mile and he could add value to those novelty bets.

Already an eight-year-old, he will be having his 60th race start. Fifty seven of those were when he was with Japanese conditioner Hideyuki Takaoka and later with the Englishman James Peters.

An Australian-bred by Unencumbered, he is one of those bread-and-butter horses. Not one to make the headlines but, Dunderdale will agree, he is a good horse to have in the yard.

A winner of six races, he has taken second on seven occasions and, although getting long in the tooth, he can still turn on the style.

Fort Mustang’s two races coming into Jan 4 were both over the sprint trips of 1,020m and 1,200m. Those were hardly what he would have wanted.

After all, Fort Mustang’s six wins were all over the longer trips of 1,600m and 1,700m.

So, one could say, Dunderdale has found a suitable sort of race for his acquisition and we should see him in it for a long way.

Outside of Dunderdale’s trio, there was also good work thrown in by Otahuhu and Heart Of Fire.

Trained by Nick Selvan, Otahuhu ran the 600m in 37.8sec. That was after he was restricted to a strong canter down the back stretch.

Heart Of Fire did that similar trip in 36.7sec.

Previously from Donna Logan’s Kranji stables, Otahuhu had his last race on Sept 28 before being sent to take up residence at Selvan’s yard.

The Overshare five-year-old has yet to face the Malaysian starter but he had a good trial on Nov 26.

That day, under Khairil Zulkiflee, he was second behind Storm Pegasus, clocking a commendable 1min 0.88sec for the 1,000m.

Now, with his training gallop under his girth, Otahuhu should be ready for his Malaysian debut.

As for Heart Of Fire, the son of All Too Hard has already won twice for trainer Winson Cheng Han Yong and the Ten Brothers Stable. In particular, he would have gone into many notebooks after finishing second three starts ago.

That was over the sprint trip of 1,100m and he failed by just ½ length to catch Surfie Boy. The five-year-old will meet some smart ones in the Class 3 race but he possesses good early speed and he could lead from barrier to box.

 

brian@sph.com.sg