3 minute read

The racing season concluded at Singapore over the weekend with star sprinter Bold Thruster rounding it out on a winning note.

His first win for the Michael Clements stable, no doubt connections would have been thrilled to see him back in the winner's stall.

Formerly trained by Shane Baertschiger, Bold Thruster won seven of his first eight starts, before safely held in this year's Group 1 Lion City Cup [1200m].

Sent out at 3-1, it likely all came a bit too son of the son of Turffontein, before switching stables to join the Michael Clements yard.

In three starts since for Clements, Bold Thruster was yet to win, however his first two efforts were very game with the big weight.

Rated 102 by Timeform when winning this year's Group 3 Rocket Man Sprint [1200m], Bold Thruster has gone to another level this time in, now rated 109.

That figure puts him near the top of the tree in Singapore and he is certainly trending the right way.

Failing at his latest attempt, Clements elected to freshen up the 4YO, lining up off a 49 day break on Sunday.

Clements also took the blinkers off last start, however they went back on after setting the track alight in a recent trial.

Ridden by Vlad Duric, he saluted by 8.25L and gave the stopwatch a good starting and a beating (58.81).

If you break 1:00:00 over 1000m at the trials, you are running some slick time, so to go >6L faster than that, you are indeed humming.

To place that trial time into perspective, Nova Swiss is the current track record holder (57.70) and did it carrying 55.5kg, Bold Thruster carried 68kg.

There was some concerns that such a performance could flatten him for Sunday's race given it was only 10 days ago, however his class shone through.

While not beginning the best, he recovered quickly to kick up and hold a position behind the leader on settling.

Shuffled back to sixth approaching the 700m, it did look a bit hairy, before slicing his way through to get the back of Nowyousee.

Initially struggling to pick them up inside the 300m, Bold Thruster really knuckled down late, gunning down Skywalk in the last stride.

So well treated at the weights, Bold Thruster returned a Timeform rating of 98, below that of his career peak.

Happy to suggest that recent trial did knock him around a bit as while he did win, when looking at his peak ratings, he was entitled to win by further (given the weight he was allotted).

Nonetheless it was good to see him back a winner and very much looking forward to seeing where Clements heads with him next season.