Bayliss' day of glory and homage

In All His Glory not only took trainer Tim Fitzsimmons back to the top, but also had jockey Jake Bayliss looking skywards at the winning post at Kranji yesterday.

The emphatic win from the bold chestnut in the $70,000 Class 3 Polytrack race (1,600m) capped a treble for Fitzsimmons, a winner earlier with Nate's Champion and Wan Legacy. The prolific haul enabled the Australian handler to wrest back the lead he surrendered to Donna Logan last week.

But it did not last long. The Kiwi trainer shot one straight back with Master Ryker (she also won with Wednesday) in the last race to restore parity with 43 winners each.

Logan, who was one clear before yesterday's proceedings, stays on top on a countback for seconds.

"It's still too early. I'm not thinking about that," said Fitzsimmons.

"But in saying this, there's also only 14 meetings left. So, the next few meetings will give us a better idea how it plays out."

Bayliss' salute to the heavens at the line came about in a much less celebratory context - even if the Stewards still took exception to the indiscretion with a $500 fine.

His grandmother died in Australia last week. Bayliss actually returned to Queensland mid-July to be by her bedside as soon as news came through she was seriously ill, missing one Kranji meeting.

Together with other family members, he helped out around her farm, where he grew up. But the filial grandson had to return to Kranji to fulfil his riding commitments, knowing it was probably the last time he would see her alive.

"Some people may not know it, but my grandmother passed away (last) week. She was a big part of my life," said the young Australian rider who was wearing a black armband. "I wanted to pay my respect to her today. I'm so grateful for the win.

"At first, I thought I'd go home early to spend the week with the family, but I know my grandmother would have liked me to stay here and ride."

Bayliss, who not too long ago won a Group 2 race as a replacement rider for Fitzsimmons on Golden Monkey, is slowly becoming a supersub of choice for the yard.

He again turned in a 10-out-of-10 ride after Vlad Duric, who was aboard at In All His Glory's last-start romp in a Class 4 race, could not make the 54.5kg weight.

Even when the All Too Hard six-year-old gave up the lead to Street Cry Success (A'Isisuhairi Kasim) and Amore Amore (Danny Beasley) down the backstraight, Bayliss had saved the best for last.

Swooping down the middle of the track at the 200m, In All His Glory ($23) swiftly put his rivals to the sword, relegating Cheval Blanc (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) to second place two lengths astern.

Gold Strike (Marc Lerner) was third another neck away. The winning time was 1min 39.1sec for the Polytrack mile.

"I just said to Jake to roll forward and... sit back if someone else is quicker," said Fitzsimmons.

"There was a question mark over his first time on Polytrack, but it would have been a long gap between runs if he didn't run today. So we thought why not give Polytrack a try.

"Jake's grandmother passed away (last) week. So it's good he's won a race.

"This horse had a wind op before this prep. We could make a case for at least four of his five thirds in a row. We stepped him up to the mile, we see no reason why he wouldn't go even further. That would take him to another level altogether."