Glenlogan Park sire Jet Spur and Stratum are primed to fight out a close finish for first season sire honours in the winners category. Jet Spur has sired 11 individual winners in Australia but has been sitting on that total since Fanciful won on debut at Townsville on April 1.
Stratum recorded his 12th first-crop winner when Big Bonanza scored at Wellington in NSW last week. The Widden sire is a runaway winner of the Australian 2yo and first-season premierships in the prizemoney category thanks to his Golden Slipper winning filly Crystal Lily.
Jet Spur (Flying Spur) enjoyed an otherwise winning run during the long weekend starting out with Wanggol in South Korea. He completed a winning hat-trick at Busan but those wins are not included in our premiership. He won by 10 lengths over 1600m and has now earned the equivalent of AUD 74,560.
Wanggol (2c Jet Spur – Kosciusko Country by Timber Country) was sold for $18,000 by Clear Summer Lodge at the 2009 Magic Millions HIT Sale. His second dam Julep (Sir Tristram) was a Listed winner of the VRC Talindert Hcp at Flemington.
Sen Pride is another South Korean winner for the Glenlogan Park sire this year. His dam Foxxy Cleo made $20,000 when sold in foal to Jet Spur at the 2007 Magic Millions National Sale.
Fanciful has also gone from strength-to-strength since her debut win on April Fool’s Day. Trained in the bush at Blackall by Kevin Birse, she has done a magnificent job winning four races including the $100,000 Parry Nissan Great Northern Classic at Townsville on Monday.
“I just rode her like the best horse in the race and that did the trick,” jockey Ryan Wiggins said. “She’s a top filly and was half playing with them at the finish. She will go well down in Brisbane in those three-year-old races next time in.”
Fanciful (2f Jet Spur-Systems Go by Sea Road) was a $10,000 bargain from the Misty Downs Stud draft at the 2011 QTIS 600 Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast. Part owner Beau Gray is based north of Longreach at Muttaburra and couldn’t make it to the track. Instead, he left it to Birse and fellow part-owner Darren Atkinson to cheer the filly home.
Gray went to the inaugural QTIS 600 Yearling Sale last year with a small budget. “There was a group of us at the sales and we liked the Jet Spurs,” he recalled. “I thought Fanciful would be in our price bracket and luckily she was.”
Fanciful looked well above average right from the time she was first tested on the training track. “We knew early on she had plenty of ability and we were confident first-up. But she ran into Whitsunday Express who was flying at the time.”
She pulled up shin-sore after running fourth behind Mundi Gully in the Magic Millions Mackay Plate and was given a 16 week spell. The break did her the world of good and her record now reads 6: 4-1-0 with $143,500 in earnings.
Fanciful will be spelled and brought back in readiness for the lucrative Magic Millions race series early next year. That will tie in nicely for her owners who will be in town looking for another bargain at the 2011 QTIS 600 Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast.
Fanciful defeated Catbird filly Feline Irish by a neck in the Parry Nissan Great Northern Classic on Monday. The runner-up is trained by Rugby League star Aaron Payne who captained Queensland Cowboys to victory over the Canberra Raiders on Saturday night.