Morphettville
11th May 2024
Jason Warren
By Trevor Marshallsea
Rosemont Stud’s aptly-named two-year-old homebred Flyer became the second stakes winner for the Vinery Stud-based first-season sire Exceedance (Exceed And Excel) second stakes winner by impressively flashing home to take out Saturday’s David Coles AM Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Morphettville.
A slightly easy $4.40 fourth-favourite, the Jason Warren-trained filly also brought her dam Miss Toorak Flyer (Toorak Toff) her second stakes-winner from as many foals to race.
Year-older half-sister Treasurway (Starspangledbanner), another Rosemont homebred, also won a Morphettville two-year-old stakes race in the Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in April last year. Flyer ran third in this year’s edition of that race last start on April 27.
Flyer, now with two wins from six starts after scoring on debut at Sandown in February, showed great fighting qualities to take Saturday’s race, having missed the jump slightly from gate one for Craig Williams before improving to travel fifth on the fence.
The filly ran into trouble in the early stages of the home straight when blocked for a run as favourite Karavas (Alabama Express) rounded the field to hit the lead at the 200 metres. But while Karavas was being hailed the winner, once into the clear Flyer knuckled down to her task on the favourite’s inside to sprint to the front over the final 50 metres.
Flyer hit the line 0.4 lengths ahead of Richard and Chantelle Jolly’s Karavas, giving that filly a second black-type placing as she continues to seek her first stakes win, having been disqualified from her VRC Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) success for a positive swab.
Phillip Stokes’s pacesetter The Dabble Effect (Zousain) finished a length further back, earning a dash of black-type eight days after a debut win at Cranbourne and completing an all-filly trifecta – not especially surprising with just one colt in the ten-strong field.
Flyer (2 f Exceedance – Miss Toorak Flyer by Toorak Toff) became the second black–type victor for Vinery’s Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Exceedance, following the two Group 3s for Team McEvoy’s Dublin Down either side of Christmas in the Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) and ATC Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
With four winners from 12 runners, Exceedance moves into the top ten on the Australian first season sires’ table by earnings thanks to Flyer’s victory.
Warren paid tribute to the filly, admitting much had been asked of her in this six-run debut preparation, especially in her second-start run in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), when she ran 15th at $151.
“We’ve pretty much put her to the sword this prep and she’s kept soldiering on. We sort of put her in the deep end at her second start in a Blue Diamond,” Warren said of Flyer, who at her subsequent start ran fifth in the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m).
“We got over here to try and get some crucial black-type for her, being a filly, and she’s shown up today and won a good little race.
“It wasn’t exactly painless, it was held up getting to the corner there and we were very patiently waiting for a run.
“It was a tough effort late, she really surged to the horse that was well in front of her outside, and a tough effort to come back on the inside.”
Miss Toorak Flyer, also trained by Warren, was a $40,000 purchase for the trainer from Rosemont’s draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale of 2016 before winning four times from 14 starts.
While Rosemont retained her first two filly foals, her colt by Exceed And Excel (Danehill) was bought from the Victorian stud’s draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale this year for $650,000 by Suman Hedge, Team Waterhouse-Bott and Kestrel Bloodstock.
The nine-year-old Miss Toorak Flyer now has a weanling colt by Rosemont sire Shamus Award (Snitzel) and was covered by Starspangledbanner (Choisir) last September.