Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Part-owner and trainer-driver Shane Young is disappointed that plans for his champion mare Wonderful To Fly to race in Sydney fell through at the last moment.
But he is now focusing on some rich feature events for the brilliant four-year-old, saying: “There are some decent races for mares coming up (the $50,000 Schrader Pace on October 20, the $100,000 Norms Daughter Classic on November 10, and the $150,000 Mares Classic on November 24).
“And there’s also the $125,000 Four-Year-Old Classic (December 1) and the $200,000 Golden Nugget (December 15). She should be competitive in all those races.”
Young had concrete plans set in place for sending Wonderful To Fly to Sydney to contest the $50,000 Singo Pace on Saturday August 19, and hoping for a win and a start in the $2.1 million Eureka due to be run at Menangle next Saturday night. She was booked on a flight to Melbourne, leaving Perth last Monday week, and Young had booked a flight for himself, leaving on the next day.
“But we had a curve ball thrown at us,” Young explained. “I got a phone call on the Monday from NSW Harness informing me that Wonderful To Fly had to be in a retention barn at Menangle by 12 o’clock (noon) on the Thursday.
“I then rang around, and no one could guarantee that I could get Wonderful To Fly to travel by truck from Melbourne to be in Sydney by noon on the Thursday. So, I then had to cancel everything.
“I was ready to have a crack at the Singo and getting a start in the Eureka. But it just wasn’t meant to be. She now might go to Sydney and have a crack at the Ladyship Mile in March.”
So, with the Sydney plans for Wonderful To Fly aborted, Young nominated the mare for the $27,000 HTA Taking You To New Heights Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Wonderful To Fly was the $1.70 favourite from the outside barrier in the field of eight, and Young drove her confidently to an effortless victory.
Rocknroll Sass, the $4.60 second fancy from the No. 1 barrier, led early before Young sent Wonderful To Fly to the front after 500m, following a fast lead time of 36.4sec. Wonderful To Fly then relaxed and coasted through the opening quarters of the final mile in 31.8sec. and 31.7sec. before she sprinted over the final 400m sections in 28.7sec. and 27.3sec. to win by three and a half lengths from Rocknroll Sass, rating 1.57.8 over the 2130m journey.
This improved Wonderful To Fly’s record to 45 starts for 28 wins, ten placings and $562,230 in prizemoney.
“She won easily, and it wasn’t a hard run for her,” said Young. “She is a class mare, and the pleasing thing was that she was quite relaxed.
“So far in this campaign she has had a lot of breaks, and this should stand her in good stead for the feature events at the end of the season. She had a tougher campaign last season when she won ten in a row when she raced, pretty much, week in, week out. This time she has had two runs in eight weeks. “