Illustrious back in form

He did finish down the course in his last three runs. But here is the thing: Ignore Illustrious at your own peril.

You see, the five-year-old is hitting his stride.

Indeed, one could say the grey is getting into the form which has seen him greet the judge five times from 17 starts already.

Well, that was the impression trackside spectators got after watching the third of five trials on Thursday morning.

In a show of power galloping, Illustrious blitzed his rivals over the Polytrack 1,000m – leaving little to the imagination.

Vlad Duric, who was on the reins, and Tim Fitzsimmons, who prepared the grey, would have traded high fives after the trial.

And why not? In winning, Illustrious oozed class and was thoroughly deserving of the praise.

Here is how it all unfolded.

Illustrious jumped cleanly from the centre of the line and was near the lead on settling.

Lord Justice kept him busy, as did Thunder Legend, who poked his head in front when approaching that first turn on the far side.

Illustrious hounded him from the 600m mark. It was Manoel Nunes versus Duric.

Three hundred metres out and Illustrious and Thunder Legend were locked together like Siamese twins. Two stablemates going hell for leather.

But Duric and his mount did not fancy the attention they were receiving.

With less than a furlong to travel, Duric spurred his mount into overdrive.

Nunes, on Thunder Legend, could do nothing except wave them goodbye.

The Buffalo Stable-owned racer would eventually win the trial by 1¼ lengths.

The Fitzsimmons quinella would leave Lord Justice wallowing in their wake.

Illustrious clocked an impressive 59.73sec for the trip.

All that is left for him to do is bring that blistering speed to the races – whenever that will be.

On that count, Fitzsimmons has been extremely patient with his charge.

He has raced him just twice this season and both times, Illustrious staggered home.

Ignore those two runs. Illustrious is better than that.

To date, he has won close to a quarter million dollars and he is not done, yet.

As for Thunder Legend, it looks like he is being groomed for a winning debut.

It was on April 11 that Fitzsimmons sent his youngster to the trials and the son of Night Of Thunder made a big noise.

He won that jump-out in 1min 00.43sec.

The four-year-old has improved and must be followed when his connections send him to the races.

One trial later and a print of the finish had to be called to determine the top three placings.

It showed that Dancing Light had pipped Gold Ten Sixty-One by a nose, with Mongol Warrior holding down third spot, another nose away.

Again, like in the third trial, it was a Fitzsimmons quinella. The only difference being, the winner did not break the minute-mark.

Dancing Light ran out the trip in 1min 00.59sec.

Nunes was on the winning horse, while Ronnie Stewart partnered runner-up Gold Ten Sixty-One.

A four-year-old by Street Boss, Dancing Light is shaping up well for another attack.

With four wins from just 10 outings, he is climbing through the ranks and could soon be rubbing withers with the big boys.

Last time, on March 25, he posted his fourth win and he did it in fine style. He romped home by almost four lengths over the Poly 1,100m.

Duric was the rider and the pair made light work of the 59kg he had to carry.

It was just his second start for the season and we should see him winning more races.

The same could be said for Gold Ten Sixty-One. He has already won four races from a dozen starts. The last one was on Feb 25.

Gold Ten Sixty-One is getting better as he matures and, in the coming months, the AJ’s Stable could have a lot of fun with their speedster.