FANTASTIC FLYER made it three wins out of her last five races when romping home at Wolverhampton this afternoon at 14/1 under a very canny and intelligent ride from Joey Haynes.
The Harbour Watch filly was drawn on the wide outside in stall twelve and despite being slowly away and being bumped, she soon went into the lead and built up a useful lead as she led the field a merry dance around Wolverhampton’s turns. She was always travelling well in front, helped by the first time cheek-pieces and two furlongs out, Joey asked her to go and she went clear and at the line was a comfortable five lengths ahead of her nearest rival, Sonnet Rose.
Fantastic Flyer was having her first ever race on Wolverhampton’s Tapeta surface and she handled it as well as the polytrack at Kempton and Chelmsford, where she recorded her previous victories in April. The filly put in two somewhat disappointing performances after her two wins when coming fourth on both occasions but there’s no doubt she was rejuvenated by the application of cheek-pieces.
She started winning off a mark of 45 and was today 15lbs higher. There is no doubt the handicapper will take a dim view of today’s facile victory and she’ll be moving up in class in future. While the filly had changed ownership from Mrs Kim Young to the trainer’s wife, Lesley Ivory, a special mention should go to Kim and her late husband, Bob, as their Gracelands Stud bred the filly.
This was the yard’s third winner of the month and puts the stable on 28 wins for the year, three more than by the end of July last year. The current hot spell and consequent fast ground means some of the Harper Lodge big guns have not been out as hoped for but the winners are continuing to flow and the stable could be heading for a record 40 wins in a year.