Chopin's Fantaisie hits a high note
Unbeaten three-year-old lights up training track
Some horses just hate to lose. CHOPIN'S FANTAISIE is in that club. Three wins from three starts, he is every owner's dream and every rival's nightmare.
From the first time he trotted out onto the racetrack, he went off as favourite. And all three times he showed more talent than the rest.
In short, you just couldn't take your eyes off him.
To put it another way. Chopin's Fantaisie showed us all along that what made him special was his instinctive ability to size up a field and plot a run through it.
Well, we haven't seen the best of him and, yesterday on the training track, he tossed the gauntlet to his rivals in Sunday's Open Benchmark 67 sprint with a winning gallop over the 600m.
Going nicely all the way, he clocked 36.8 seconds for the short sprint.
It was a workout worth noting and trainer Michael Clements should have him presented for Sunday's race looking hard as a brick.
In his three victories to date, the son of Pins has tracked the leading pack before unleasing a run close home. Three times, his winning margin has been less than a length - which tells me he has a heart as big as his strides.
We haven't yet seen the best from him and, to think, Chopin's Fantaisie is still a three-year-old.
Before we line up to collect our winnings on Sunday, we could pad up the wallet on Friday - courtesy of a pair of smart ones from trainer Shane Baertschiger's yard.
Like Chopin's Fantaisie, LADRONE and SMIDDY BYRNE also impressed on the training track.
Ridden by Matthew Kelady and John Powell respectively, the pair matched strides to clock in at 37.7sec for the 600m.
Separated by 20 points in the ratings system, Ladrone will face the starter in the Class 4 Division 2 sprint over 1,200m on Friday while stablemate Smiddy Byrne will see action in a Maiden over the same trip and on the same day.
A five-year-old bred in New Zealand, Ladrone has won two from 18 but his last victory was more than six months ago when, on Jan 13, he made every post a winning one to beat the promising Knight Judge in a tight finish.
That day, he clocked a decent 1min 10.16sec for the distance.
Two starts back, on June 4, Ladrone was unlucky not to have put another win on the board when beaten by Lim's Shot.
Such was the finish that a print had to be requested before the judges could separate the two runners.
Baertschiger has found a winnable sort of race for him on Friday and it could pay to toss him into those exotics.
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