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Promising filly Thumping lived up to her name when she gave her nine rivals a real pounding in the $65,000 Brisbane Racing Club Trophy Restricted Maiden Division 1 race over 1400m on Sunday.
Photo by Singapore Turf Club
After the US-bred three-year-old by Any Given Saturday made an eye-catching debut when a cracking third in a 1200m race at the long odds of $298 four weeks ago, she was unsurprisingly not overlooked in the market this time around.
She sure lived up to her billing as the second-elect at $22 to give the Better Life team of trainer Hideyuki Takaoka, jockey Alan Munro and Suzuka Racing Stable another success after the champion mare was retired in the wake of her Group 1 Emirates Singapore Derby win last Sunday.
After matching motors with Silver Fly (Lee Soo Hin) midway through the race, Thumping asserted her superiority upon straightening to bolt clear for a 3 ¾-length win from Silver Fly with Flying Neko (Manoel Nunes) third another half-a-length away. The winning time was 1min 23.01secs.
The start of the race resembled a cat-and-mouse affair with none of the 10 contenders willing to commit to the lead. Under a tight restraint, a line of seven runners abreast lobbed along in the first furlong before Silver Fly and Thumping finally detached themselves to assume the responsibility of showing the way, with Silver Fly holding the rails run.
A break of two lengths away, Fahla Fahla (KT Cheng) headed the chasing pack, which still did not seem in a hurry to launch their challenge. Munro must have giggled to himself, as he slipped some reins at the home turn to immediately pinch a two-length break.
Caught napping, the other runners were struggling to muster a response, with only Silver Fly able to keep in touch, but it was to no avail, as the filly stretched her lead to show a clean pair of heels to the line with Munro barely giving her a taste of the persuader.
Among the beaten brigade, newcomer Horaz Samosir (Ivaldo Santana) must be credited with a good run with a fourth place while the major disappointment of the race was favourite Mal's Dad (Danny Beasley), who never looked likely after travelling at the rear only to plod home worse than midfield.
Despite the consummate ease of the win, Takaoka cautioned Thumping still had plenty of room for improvement.
“She’s still very green, but she’s certainly got some ability,” said the Japanese handler.
“I discussed with Alan before the race and we decided we would sit behind the favourite, but if nobody led, she could also go forward.
“As she’s by Any Given Saturday, I think she can go for more distance in the future.”
Munro agreed that Thumping was not without talent, but there was still a long way to go before she can test her mettle at a higher level.
“She’s obviously got good talent. She’s a half-sister of Caribbean Moon, who is not a bad sort,” said the English jockey who was at a winning treble, having saluted earlier aboard My Dancing Duel for trainer Cliff Brown before landing the penultimate event with Max Velocity for trainer Bruce Marsh.
“We were prepared to lead today, but it’s one of those situations where nobody really wanted to lead.
“I was happy to go forward, but she did overrace a bit and was quite green in front. She has a good engine and did it well in the end.”
