{"id":102721,"date":"2025-05-15T05:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T05:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/102721\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T05:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T05:41:15","slug":"victoria-derby-hopeful-thunderbolt-way-to-debut-at-flemington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/102721\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Derby hopeful Thunderbolt Way to debut at Flemington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long term plans aplenty could form after Saturday’s Trevor Clarke Handicap (1400m) at Flemington.<\/p>\n

The 1400m contest for two-year-olds will be the point at which sprinting or staying futures are decided for many of the 14 acceptors for the $150,000 race.<\/p>\n

\u2022 PUNT LIKE A PRO<\/a>: Become a Racenet iQ member<\/a> and get expert tips \u2013 with fully transparent return on investment statistics \u2013 from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips<\/a> section. SUBSCRIBE NOW<\/a>!<\/b><\/p>\n

Flemington trainer Simon Zahra<\/a> expects to follow the staying path with his charge Thunderbolt Way<\/a>, who will debut on his home track on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Thunderbolt Way is a son of the former smart sprinter Pariah, who twice won over 1100m in his racing days, but Zahra said the youngster showed all the attributes of a distance prospect.<\/p>\n

“He’s got stayer written all over him,” Zahra said.<\/p>\n

“He’s got good ability and might be a Derby horse as a three-year-old.”<\/p>\n

Thunderbolt Way is a longshot chance to make a winning debut at Flemington but Zahra said the chestnut would improve sharply on whatever he did first-up.<\/p>\n

\"ANZAC<\/p>\n

Debut stakes winner Highvol has been well backed to win Saturday’s Trevore Clarke Handicap at Flemington. Picture: Racing Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u2022 Singapore champ has mountain to climb at Flemington<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

He said Thunderbolt Way’s jumpouts indicated the stable had plenty to work with but time would produce an imposing specimen.<\/p>\n

“He jumped out well but he’s got a lot of improvement to come,” Zahra said.<\/p>\n

“He’s going to be a really nice horse next time in.<\/p>\n

“He’s got a bit of presence, a good action and a great attitude. <\/p>\n

“We might get a couple of runs into him now and he’ll be back in the spring.”<\/p>\n

Drawing barrier 13 made Thunderbolt Way’s task more difficult over the Flemington 1400m course, which presents a long sweeping turn soon after the start.<\/p>\n

However, Zahra said the draw would present an opportunity to continue Thunderbolt Way’s education.<\/p>\n

“He’ll go back from the wide draw and we expect to see him running on well in the straight,” Zahra said.<\/p>\n

“That will be the best thing for him, to teach him to relax and finish the race off strongly.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long term plans aplenty could form after Saturday’s Trevor Clarke Handicap (1400m) at Flemington. The 1400m contest for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-102721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114510252123322020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}