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Tim Fitzsimmons may have only 20 horses on his books, but he is tied with champion trainer Mark Walker as the trainer to saddle the most “babies” in Saturday’s $125,000 Group 3 Singapore Golden Horseshoe (1200m) with three – last Saturday’s winner Golden One, Relentless and Ace Sovereign.
Walker is throwing into the mix a trio made up of Our Secret Weapon, Take A Chance and Boundless Glory.
The term "babies" is used a bit loosely this year as the juvenile feature is staged five months later as a result of the reprogramming that was necessitated by COVID-19, and will therefore feature three-year-olds instead of two-year-olds – except for the sole Northern Hemisphere-bred entrant Dragon Sands, who by virtue of his birth in Ireland, turns three on January 1.
While the massive operation run by Walker is never short of a few kids to come out of its nursery, the most famous graduate being 2013 juvenile champion War Affair, Fitzsimmons is himself making his own baby steps, let alone training babies at Kranji.
Busy building up his new stable (granted in 2019) from scratch, Fitzsimmons actually had the Singapore Golden Horseshoe uppermost in his mind when he brought his cheque book to the yearling sales last year.
When the race was put off, Cliff Brown's former assistant-trainer didn't really mind. The extra time has given his juveniles more time to mature and strengthen up, even if that was not an exclusive advantage to just his horses.
"I bought four two-year-olds and I got three running. It's not a bad effort for a little stable," said the Australian handler, who picked all his two-year-olds, except for Ace Sovereign.
"Having the race run in December has actually worked out good for them. I'm happy with all three of them, even if I think all three are in the same boat – they are all looking for more ground."
With the later staging of the Singapore Golden Horseshoe, it's par for the course some would have already shown what's under the bonnet – and how far they may go.
The engine may not be in the same calibre as Fitzsimmons' ex-boss Brown's turbocharged Inferno, last year's 2yo supremo, but Fitzsimmons couldn't fault his trio either, especially Golden One (x Better Than Ready), who is on the quick back-up after he opened his account in a Restricted Maiden race over seven furlongs at his fourth time of asking on Saturday.
"Golden One has come through the run really good. I put him in that race just to see if he runs well," said Fitzsimmons.
"I entered him in the Singapore Golden Horseshoe at the close of entries just to keep my options open. As he's run well and pulled up well, I left him in.
"The blinkers sharpened him up. They went really quick and he was able to settle closer to the speed, but to me, he's looking for the mile.
"Relentless is in the same boat, he's also looking for 1400m to 1600m. At his last start in the Novice race, they went real slow and that didn't suit him.
"As for Ace Sovereign, he had a break after his last run (October 25 when seventh to Day Approach in a Restricted Maiden race over 1400m). He was caught wide the whole way.
"I didn't buy him, it's the owner who did. This horse is also looking for 1400m, but the Singapore Golden Horseshoe has come up and it's still got good prizemoney."
Fitzsimmons is not changing the last-start winning combination of Golden One and Wong Chin Chuen, while he is reuniting Relentless with the jockey who rode the son of Hallowed Crown to his only win (Restricted Maiden race over 1200m on October 10), Marc Lerner and Ace Sovereign, a New Zealand-bred son of Darci Brahma, is paired up with a new partner in John Powell.
