His Relentless spirit pays off
Small-scale trainer Tim Fitzsimmons lands his third winner of the season
As they say, things can only get better for trainer Tim Fitzsimmons.
With just a small string of horses, he has had to battle all the way and his "relentless" pursuit for glory was rewarded when Relentless, an aptly named horse, won for him on Saturday.
It most certainly brought on the smiles from the Australian, who has been playing his trade as a full-fledged trainer at Kranji since April last year.
The pickings have been meagre. Relentless was his third winner for 2020, following the successes of Mega Gold in February and Mister Dynamo in early August.
But the trainer reckons things will improve.
Right now the 39-year-old helms only a small-scale operation with 20 horses.
"I have mostly new horses. When I get a spot for them, they are up against higher-rated horses," he said.
"They need more racing experience. Things would have been different if we still raced twice a week.
"Still, I'm happy with the way they have been running, as I've had many placings. I hope things can only improve from now on."
Fitzsimmons honed his training skills when he was assistant trainer to Cliff Brown. He has since tried to put that "training" to good use.
As for Relentless, the youngster came home with a storming run to land the spoils in the $75,000 Debt Collector 2018 Stakes, a Restricted Maiden race over 1,200m. He was ridden by Marc Lerner.
Unfancied, he rewarded his supporters with a juicy $99 payout.
As for his owners, they picked up a nice $10,000 sales credit from Magic Millions.
"It's great for the Arexevan-Relentless Stable," he said.
"It was Peter Twomey who bought this horse for me at the Inglis Ready-To-Run last year. I then had the Arexevan boys come on board.
"It's great I trained my first winner for the Arexevan Stable. They have just the one horse with me for the time being. I hope more will follow soon.
"I've always had a high opinion of Relentless. He was a bit immature and not quite there at his debut some two months ago. I gave him a break and he has come on from that run.
"Saturday's race panned out well for him. They went really quick in front and it suited him nicely."
Indeed, unsighted for most of the way, Relentless was the fastest when angled to the outside.
Pinning his ears back, he gobbled up the ground in brilliant style to finish over the top of his rivals.
Will that latest success with Relentless open the gates for Fitzsimmons?
Why not?
It will surely give his confidence a boost and the rest is what he makes of it.
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