South African champion sire Jet Master has another rising star on the horizon.

Ebony Flyer (SAf) is the horse in question and she scored a fluent win at Kenilworth last Saturday to earn early favouritism for the G1 Queen’s Plate on January 7.

The big black mare won over 1500 meters while barely ridden out by jockey Felix Coetzee.

Ebony Flyer (4m Jet Master – Sunshine Lover by Badger Land) is unbeaten since returning from a throat operation.  She is owned by Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud in partnership with Team Valor and producer Anant Singh and his wife Vanashree.

Ebony Flyer has now won six of her seven starts.  Her lone loss came in last year’s Queen’s Plate when she was third as a three-year-old filly.

“She is the best filly I have ever raced, anywhere, period,” Team Valor’s Barry Irwin said on Saturday.  “She broke sluggishly and sat just behind the leaders who were going slow.  She wheeled out before the stretch, and opened up three lengths in 40 yards.”

Ebony Flyer will start in the G2 Diadem Stakes on December 17 in a final lead-up to the Queen’s Plate.

She had won her first four races in a row, culminating in a game win over subsequent Horse of the Year Igugu (Galileo) in last year’s G1 Cape Fillies Guineas.  After her Queen’s Plate run last January, she was sidelined due to breathing problems and only returned to the track in October, where she made a winning return in the G3 Diana Stakes.

Jet Master died from complications of the West Nile virus in November.  He became South Africa’s champion sire for the first time in 2007, a position he has held ever since.

Jet Master (Rakeen) has sired champion gallopers Pocket Power, J J The Jet Plane, River Jetez and Mythical Flight.