Fame Star set for stellar season
EW Barker winner in good order at Tuesday's trials
Just like the cream always rises to the top. Same too, with class. It shows. It tells. It separates the men from the boys.
Like it was in the third and final trial on Tuesday morning. It pitted the winner of the Dester Singapore Gold Cup and the winner of the EW Barker Trophy race.
Mr Clint versus Fame Star.
Over the sprint trip of 1,000m, it was "advantage Fame Star" - and that was how the trial panned out.
Like two broncos in a rodeo, both cleared the chute and right from the get-go, they matched strides.
Marc Lerner on Fame Star and Patrick Moloney on Mr Clint.
Like the true sprinter that he is, Fame Star was quickly in the lead and, whenever Mr Clint made a move on him, Fame Star kept lifting the tempo and upping the stakes.
Turning for home and it was still a two-horse trial.
In their wake, Heliosphere and Just Landed were in a battle of their own. Heliosphere would eventually claim the bronze medal.
But it was all about the 97-point rater and the 102-pointer. And, eventually, the sprinter beat the stayer.
Owned by Constance Cheng's Toast Trusts And Kadima Stable, Fame Star quickly put the trial to bed, clearing away in the closing stages to win by almost two lengths.
Absent from the races since that win in the "EW", trainer John O'Hara has done great with the five-year-old.
Patience seems to be the key ingredient in Fame Star's preparation and it seems that's how O'Hara has been planning it.
Then again, the trainer must be doing plenty right. After all, you don't saddle a horse to win seven races from 16 starts by rushing things.
Yet to face the starter in 2020, Tuesday's win was Fame Star's second trial victory in just over a fortnight.
It tells me one thing. He's running into another rich vein of form and that could translate into another stellar season for the sprinter.
Along those same lines, kudos too to Mr Clint. He too has not raced since lifting the Gold Cup with that lung-bursting sprint over the final 200m of that 2,000m race in November.
A full-fledged member of Kranji's Million-Dollar Club - he has so far banked in $1.8million - Mr Clint is another one who has yet to grace the turf this season.
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