Glispie’s Timeforarms ready to slam rivals
SUPERSTAKES-winning apprentice Anthony Thomas looks set to light up the second half of this afternoon’s 11-race card with possibly four winners, including a double for trainer Fitzroy Glispie – PAKMAN in the fifth and TIMEFORARMS in the 11th and closing event.
Thomas also looks good aboard PRINCE KAMALI in the ninth and HAPPY LEE in the 10th, the 1200-metre Flossie McNeil Memorial Cup for maiden three-year-olds, fillies, and mares.
Glispie’s hardy eight-year-old, TIMEFORARMS, takes a step down in class from his usual overnight allowance roost to race among $850,000 claimers, taking on horses half his age, some younger, at what should be an ideal mile for the old stager.
Glispie has recalled hot Thomas, who was astride TIMEFORARMS for five consecutive overnight allowance races before his last outing on December 2 – a fast-finishing eighth-place finish at 1400 metres behind SOY EL SENOR, Wednesday’s winner BLUE DIXIE, and fit TRADITIONAL PRINCE.
TIMEFORARMS really had very little chance at 1400 metres in a race with splits of 23.0, 46.2 and 1:10.4. However, the eight-year-old showed his strength inside the last furlong, closing well to finish six and a quarter lengths off SOY EL SENOR, who, in turn, beat secondplace BLUE DIXIE by two lengths.
Down in class at a mile, TIMEFORARMS will not only have a slower pace to his advantage, but reports four pounds lighter due to Thomas’s twokilo claim.
Thomas is more than familiar with TIMEFORARMS. Among the five consecutive overnight allowances races in which he was aboard the eight-yearold this season, was a fourth-place finish behind DWAYNE STAR, PHINEAS, and PROLIFIC PRINCESS at 1500 metres in July.
Stretched out for his next two races with Thomas, TIMEFORARMS was third to ROYAL VIBES and UNCLE TAF at a mile in August, and afterwards, lost a nail-biter to SUPERLUMINAL at 10 furlongs in September, finishing ahead of HOVER CRAFT in the Kenneth Mattis Trophy.
Among TIMEFORARMS’s rivals are the versatile STORMING, speedy MR AMBASSADOR, and JAMAI RAJA, who hasn’t been the same horse since running his heart out a year ago to place fourth in the Diamond Mile.
STORMING was no match for MR AMBASSADOR at 1300 metres on November 15 in the Cecil Charlton Trophy and should be similarly held by her old rival.
Richard Azan has been trying to get JAMAI RAJA back into shape but had finished 11th behind SOY EL SENOR on December 2, almost three lengths behind TIMEFORARMS, who rushed past him from off the pace.
MR AMBASSADOR could be TIMEFORARMS’s main threat if he gets a chance to control the pace. Jockey Oneil Scott fell from aboard the fiveyear-old behind ZEPHYR on November 25. He now has a rider hungry for a winner, Bebeto Harvey, who will try making every post a winning one.