Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Flighty filly Flybye Lou made a remarkable debut when she galloped badly at the start and lost about ten lengths before racing unkindly and then careering away to win the 2130m Perth’s #1 Station Nova 93.7 Pace by more than eight lengths at Gloucester Park on Friday night, and in the process ending the brilliant Water Lou’s winning sequence of eight.
Water Lou was the $1.05 favourite for the 2130m event for three-year-old fillies and was considered unbeatable, boasting a record of 17 wins and two seconds from 21 starts for stakes of $325,071.
Onlookers, champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr and trainer Michael Young were stunned at the New Zealand-bred Flybye Lou’s sheer brilliance in winning by a margin of 24.7 metres from $51 chance Spice Package, with Water Lou retired from the race in the back straight in the final lap after she had suffered an atrial fibrillation when leading with just over a lap to go.
Flybye Lou started from the No. 1 barrier and was the second favourite at $14.60 after a runaway victory in a Byford trial the previous Sunday morning.
Flybye Lou broke into a fierce gallop at the start, and Shannon Suvaljko dashed Water Lou (after starting from the outside in the field of six) to the front after 200m.
Water Lou set a dawdling pace with opening 400m sections of 32.1sec. and 31.3sec. before she began to falter in the home straight, racing for the bell. Flybye Lou was then in last position as Hall urged her forward in a lightning move which saw her surge to the front 20m from the post with a lap to travel and then charge away from her rivals.
“She was terrible in the preliminary,” said Hall. “She tries to go too fast and fights you. She doesn’t like all the gear she has on, so she gets cranky.
“She put her head over the arm of the mobile barrier, and when I tried to get her back, she broke at the start. She might never sort herself out. If she settles, she will be pretty good.
“I knew that there was something wrong with Water Lou when he (Shannon Suvaljko) started urging her. Water Lou was off the bit, so I thought I’d go and pinch a break.”
Young was left shaking his head after Flybye Lou’s bewildering performance, saying: “She has all kinds of ability and all kinds of mental issues as well. She is absolutely a head scratcher.
“She is a really good horse, but we might never see her true ability if she doesn’t learn to settle. It was remarkable what she did after galloping at the start and then pulling. She just does everything wrong, and having so much talent that it makes it so frustrating.
“Flybye Lou’s trials in New Zealand were very good, and she was very expensive. She is worth every penny and if she learns to settle, she is as good as any filly in the State.”
Flybye Lou is raced by prominent owner Glen Moore, who celebrated his 72ND birthday on Wednesday and enjoyed a winning treble on Friday night with Youre So Fine, Coney Island Lou and Flybye Lou. Flybye Lou’s win completed a treble for Hall, who was also successful in the sulky with Youre So Fine and Coney Island Lou.
Mike Reed, the trainer of Water Lou, was happy to report that his filly had not suffered any physical damage. “She had never before fibrillated,” he said. “Shannon said that she was relaxed and travelling well before fibrillating and then she couldn’t go and down the back started wobbling.
“Never mind, it could be worse. It could’ve been a pedal bone, a tendon or a suspensory. Water Lou will have an ECG, and I’ll get the vets to go over her.”
Flybye Lou is by American sire Sweet Lou and is the fourth foal out of Ideal Flybye, who raced 31 times for ten wins, four placings and $62,468.
Flybye Lou’s half-sister Kahlua Flybye (by Bettors Delight) earned $197,739 from eight wins and 15 placings from 32 starts. As a two-year-old Kahlua Flybye finished second in three Group 1 and third in two Group 2 events in New Zealand. She was also placed in a Group 1 event as a three-year-old and in a Group 2 event as a four-year-old.