Chopin's Fantaisie makes it 4 from 4
Jockey Boss says trainer Clements will have a lot of fun with his unbeaten star
CHOPIN'S FANTAISIE produced another masterclass performance at Kranji yesterday to stay unbeaten in four starts.
Again, he provided some anxious moments with another hard-fought victory, but his jockey, Glen Boss, felt that the mount he picked up from the the three-year-old's suspended regular jockey, Vlad Duric, was merely toying with his Open Benchmark 67 rivals.
After winning first-up in a Polytrack 1,100m race, the full-brother to former Hong Kong champion galloper Ambitious Dragon won his last two starts over 1,400m in 1min 23.06sec and then 1min 22.85sec, but this time, he broke the class record in 1min 21.88sec.
There was a bit of drama before the race when Life Is Gamble broke through his barrier. Jockey Benny Woodworth managed to pull his mount up after about 70m. The last-start winner was vetted and passed fit to race.
Oxbow Sun led by a length early but was joined by Supernova at about the halfway mark. Boss parked Chopin's Fantaisie third on the rails and covered by Longhu. Aotearoa was right behind Chopin's Fantaisie.
Supernova popped ahead turning for home and straightened a bit wide from Oxbow Sun on the inside. This presented a huge gap for Chopin's Fantaisie, the $7 favourite, and Aotearoa to drive through together in the final 300m.
From there, the two horses fought tooth-and-nail to the winning post, with Chopin's Fantaisie pulling ahead in the final 70m.
VAST IMPROVEMENT
Trainer Michael Clements was certainly impressed with Chopin's Fantaisie's guts and vast improvement.
"Obviously, he had a bit of a challenge up the straight, but his class came through in the end," said the Zimbabwean-born trainer.
"Well, he has knocked a second off his last-start time, so it was a big improvement. He's stepping up every time."
Clements is looking at another Class 3 race in four to five weeks' time for his rising star and, if all goes well, he will look to one of the feature races later in the year.
Boss reckoned Chopin's Fantaisie is "not the full product yet" and Clements will have plenty of fun with the horse.
"He's a very unassuming horse. Obviously, he has got a very good engine and he ran a quick time there," said the Australian.
"He's certainly a horse that Mike will have a lot of fun because there's a lot there to work with, you know. He's going to continue to improve over the next six months. I feel that's the type of horse he is. He'll mature and he's not the finished product yet. He's coming and it's coming quickly.
"You know, he was not going to win by a big space, by two or three lengths, that's not his cuppa. It was like a cat and mouse. He had that horse beaten the whole way but he was just playing with him.
"He only showed his authority in the last 20m when he started to pull away, so he's a lovely horse with a good action and a good attitude."
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