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Straight back from his US trip where he purchased two new horses, trainer Michael Clements won’t have much time to catch his breath as he sends out a team of five horses in two big races this weekend.

Clements returned from the Ocala Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds on Sunday after shelling out more than US100,000 for two new acquisitions by new stallion Shanghai Bobby.

“It’s a new stallion and I took a chance on him. I got a filly for US$70,000 and a colt for US$35,000,” said Clements.

“The US market is pretty strong. The average price was around US$100,000, so they were reasonable buys and I hope they will be useful to us.”

While Clements was busy unleashing the purse strings around 20,000km away in Florida, it was of course business as usual at his Kranji yard where his trio of three-year-olds in the first Leg of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge, the Group 3 JBBA Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1200m) kept working towards their next target, this Friday’s $400,000 Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m). 

Off the back of their solid runs in the first Leg, Top Knight , Siam Vipasiri and Siam Blue Vanda who ran second, third and fifth respectively to Bold Thruster, are bound to draw the largest share of admirers in the Classic. 

Clements would have actually loved to exact revenge on Bold Thruster, but Shane Baertschiger’s exciting sprinter will be running in the $175,000 Group 3 Rocket Man Sprint (1200m) on Sunday instead. 

“It’s a wise move as Bold Thruster is more of a sprinter,” said Clements. 

“In saying this, my three horses are all in great shape and all three will like the step-up to 1400m, especially Top Knight. 

“All came through the first Leg pretty well and all galloped well this morning. They are going well and I wouldn’t like to separate them, although from the way Top Knight finished off, there is a thought he’d be the better horse. 

“I think the other two will be right in the shake-up, too, and I’m definitely not underestimating the opposition. 

“Solely on ratings, Pennywise is the highest, but he doesn’t have much form on turf. Lim’s Lightning ran fourth in the Sprint, though the seven furlongs may be a question mark. 

“Makkem Lad didn’t go that well in the Sprint and the rest are rated in the 60s.” 

While Vlad Duric and Glen Boss stay on Top Knight and Siam Vipasiri respectively, Siam Blue Vanda will have Ben Thompson up for the first time. 

Clements does not saddle any runner in the Rocket Man Sprint, but he does have a duo in the other Sunday feature race, the $175,000 Group 3 Moonbeam Vase (1600m) – the up-and-coming Eye Guy and Darci Brahma entire and rising seven Alibi, who has not saluted for nearly two years since that career highlight in the Group 1 Patron’s Bowl (1600m) in June 2017. 

Clements’ stable star Countofmontecristo could have been in the mix, but the Zimbabwean-born conditioner had already made up his mind to dodge that race towards an even loftier target. 

“Eye Guy has on record run only up to seven furlongs but I think he will be suited by further,” he said. 

“Alibi will be better off over the mile. It’s true he’s been running fair races and is not in the same vein of form when he won a Group 1 race, but he’s also coming off in weights down to 55.5kgs which will help him. 

“Unfortunately, he has drawn a bad barrier (13) or else he could have been more competitive. 

“As for Countofmontecristo, it was always the plan to skip the Moonbeam Vase and go straight to the (Group 1) Kranji Mile (on May 25).” 

Weighted at 53kgs, Eye Guy has drawn slightly better than Alibi - barrier No 10. The Bradbury’s Luck four-year-old will be ridden by his last winning partner (last of four wins) apprentice jockey Amirul Ismadi while Alibi will be ridden by Juan Paul van der Merwe, who has partnered him at his three outings this season.