DUNDERDALE CAN START NEW SEASON WITH A BANG

Newly-minted Malaysian champion trainer fields a strong team for KL opener on Jan 4

- Brian Miller

By his lofty standards, trainer Simon Dunderdale could not end the season with that proverbial bang. But, then again, his lone entries for the Selangor (Fatal Attraction) and Penang meetings (Good Fight) over the weekend were not disgraced. Both finished second. Still, he wrapped things up in a pretty package, taking his first champion trainer title on 73 wins.

Well, it looks like the New Zealander has already set his sights on the 2025 season and, to get things going, he has entered 13 runners for the Sungai Besi meeting coming up on Jan 4.

It is the most of all the trainers represented at the season's opener and, yes, the ninth-season trainer could come away with more than a couple of winners.

As expected, his runners were out in force on the training track and three in particular caught the eye. In no particular order, they were Lightning Gal, Limitless Spear and Fort Mustang.

Lightning Gal did the 600m trip in 38.7sec. The unraced Limitless Spear went over in 40.2sec while the former Kranji galloper, Fort Mustang, clocked an easy 40sec.

Back to Lightning Gal. The filly has yet to break the duck but, in her defence, she has only been to the races four times and they were all pretty decent efforts.