Merlion bid by Starlight

After giving it much thought, champion trainer Michael Clements has decided to toss Starlight into the Merlion Trophy mix .

Today, in Race 10 at 4.30pm, the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic winner will be his back-up to lifting the trophy he won with Countofmontecristo in 2019.

He will also be represented by his prolific mare Celavi in the Group 3 $110,000 race over the Polytrack 1,200m. It is the last feature on the last race day of the 2021 Singapore racing season.

Clements hopes his two-pronged assault will yield the desired result.

From the outset, he had been leaning more towards running Starlight in the easier Class 3 race over 1,400m on Singapore Gold Cup Day on Nov 14.

It felt like a more suitable follow-up to the four-year-old's win in a Class 3 race over 1,200m on Oct 30.

Besides, Clements had long circled the Merlion Trophy as being the target for his six-time Poly winner Celavi.

Then, out popped a question. It was brought about when Starlight scored to bring up a Clements' double on that October day.

Celavi, running in the next race, could have made it a treble, but there was to be no icing on the cake. The five-year-old mare could finish only fourth behind Entertainer in that Class 2 sprint.

In her defence, she was coming off a two-month layoff and she seemed to lack that trademark scorching gate speed.

Anyway, with his thinking cap on, Clements looked at the Merlion Trophy race and decided that it made good sense to throw Starlight into the mix.

There was also the question of weights and measures.

"Starlight would have come into the Class 3 race with the top weight of 59kg," said the Zimbabwe-born naturalised Singaporean.

"That's when I started to give the Merlion Trophy a bit of consideration. He's a horse on the improve, a horse on the up.

"I know, we're throwing him into the deep, but I thought it was worth rolling the dice to see where we're at with him."

As for Celavi, Clements also expects the Polytrack specialist to bounce back in her grand final.

"Her condition is back to where it needs to be," he said.

"Still, she will be up against Singapore's top sprinters this time.

"But she will get a bit of weight off (only 56.5kg versus her male rivals' 57.5kg), being the only filly."

Having snared only two of the 10 feature races up for grabs this year and having handed the trainers' title to Mark Walker, Clements would like nothing better than to save his season with a final hurrah.

Let's see if his double-barrelled attack on the Merlion Trophy pays off.