- The Jet Master 4yo Fly By Night beat the boys to win the Gr1 Mercury Sprint
Cape trainer Mike Bass pulled one back in what has been an ordinary KZN Champions Season by his own high standards, when the Jet Master filly Fly By Night flew late to get up and win an exciting finish to the R750 000 Gr1 The Mercury Sprint run over 1200m at Clairwood on Saturday. The 4yo filly was relatively well fancied, despite only ever having won a Novice Plate.
The Gr1 sprint brought the curtain down on 93 years of feature racing action at one of South Africa’s prime racecourses, and but for one last meeting which will host the Asian Young Guns Challenge on Saturday 2 August, that is tragically it.
For veteran Mike Bass, who has been visiting KZN for many a long year, the Mercury Sprint will probably be fondly remembered as the race that gave his 2014 campaign a touch of respectability and took some of the pressure off for the forthcoming season finale on Super Saturday.
In typical cyclical horseracing fashion, Bass’ string has lacked serious firepower and depth this year and but for the brilliant performances of the Dynasty filly Hammie’s Hooker, it has been tough going.The stable did not even have a July runner after having been a fixture in the big race for years.
Mike Bass saddled Fly By Night
But they found an unlikely rescuer in the form of two-time winner Fly By Night who came up trumps and slammed a smart field with a first ever career stakes victory on a sunny afternoon.
Fly By Night had run second six times in her sixteen starts prior to Saturday, with a career peak being her flying runner up finish to champion Via Africa in the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint at Scottsville in May.
The late scratching of Charles Laird’s Var flyer Normanz after being injured in the unsaddling enclosure, threw the race wide open and reduced the field to thirteen. As one of only two fillies, Fly By Night was quietly fancied at 9 to 2.
Casual Var led the gallop early from Barbosa and Happy Forever, while Fly By Night and Copper Parade were some lengths back on opposite sides of the track.
As the leaders came back to the bunch, Fly By Night moved up menacingly.
Delpech had been battling to squeeze through between the outside rail and the free striding Happy Forever, but in typical gentlemanly fashion, Stuart Randolph gave the pair a gap as the Joey Ramsden charge tired into the final 200m.
Fly By Night stormed into the lead and despite drifting inwards markedly on to the ever-game Midnight Run, she managed to maintain her effort and held on well to win by a half length in a time of 69,75 secs.
Her outside draw obviously made the world of difference.
Anthony Delpech rode a confident race
Piere Strydom nursed the Gr1 Computaform Sprint winner and 33 to 10 favourite Copper Parade throughout and the son of Lecture ran on courageously from a few lengths off the charge. We cannot help feel that but for a better draw, he would have just about won the race.
Showmetheway has improved since being ridden with more constraint and he held on well for third only a quarter length back.
Midnight Run is a soldier and he earned again at his favourite track by running fourth.
The winner was bred by Patricia Devine and is a R180 000 National Yearling Sale graduate.
She is by Jet Master out of the twice winning Model Man mare, Fly The Wind.
Fly By Night has now won 3 races with 8 places from 17 starts. She took her stake earnings to R781 175.
Not bad for a filly who was beaten a length by Lielums over the same distance in the Listed Lady’s Pendant at Fairview in February.
