Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Champion mare Wonderful To Fly will not travel to Queensland to contest the $250,000 Rising Sun at Albion Park on July 8, but part-owner and trainer-reinsman Shane Young is still keen to take the four-year-old to Sydney to run in the $1.2 million Eureka Slot race at Menangle on September 2.
In the meantime, Young and the other eight part-owners are contemplating a substantial offer to sell Wonderful To Fly to American interests.
“We received an offer from America last Saturday,” said Young after driving the mare to an effortless victory in the $50,000 Group 3 Kerry Clarke Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“It is a good offer, a deal higher than the $200,000 offer from America we received before Wonderful To Fly’s current campaign. We knocked that one back, and it’s more than likely that we will reject this current offer.
“She is one of the best mares here for a long time, and there are many rich events for her at Gloucester Park later in the year (including the $200,000 Golden Nugget, the $150,000 Mares Classic, the $125 Four-Year-Old Classic and the $50,000 Norms Daughter Classic). She will not be going to Brisbane for the Rising Sun, and she will now have a little break for two or three weeks before getting ready for Sydney.”
So far, no slot owner has claimed Wonderful To Fly for the Eureka event. But there is very little doubt that slot owners will be anxious to share the slot with the owners of Wonderful To Fly, who boosted her earnings to $541,915 from 27 wins and nine placings from 43 starts with her win on Friday night.
“She has excellent cruising speed, and she had a soft run tonight,” said Young. “Once she held up early, she got away with a bit before cruising home. She is certainly getting towards being ranked as one of the better mares in the country.”
Wonderful To Fly, the $1.04 favourite, coasted through the opening quarters of the final mile in 30.1sec. and 29.4sec. before increasing the tempo with final 400m sections of 28.3sec. and 27.4sec. She rated 1.56.2 over the 2130m and beat $51 chance Cyclone Charlotte by four lengths, with Eighteen Carat ($16) a length farther back in third place after racing three back on the pegs.