 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2008
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Rosie & Robert Dunn, Rose Dakin and Scott & Barbara Plant |
Robert Dunn was right and he was wrong. He believed the night would come when Time To Fly would beat the best mares in the country; he also believed it would not be this year.
He could see One Dream, It's Ella and Foreal ahead of her, and perhaps even some others, and being five, he thought she would be ready for it at six. Within a week it had all changed. One Dream and It's Ella were absent, Foreal was so-so, and with young whiz Dexter Dunn able to pull tricks out of the air, Time To Fly was in the reckoning for the $100,000 Group 1 PGG Wrightson NZ Breeder's Stakes at Addington. Not that many thought so. Even after her gallant and close second to Port Courage the previous week, she was unwanted by the public, who must have been thinking along the same lines as her trainer.
But last Friday night, Time To Fly was hard and ready, and all Dexter had to do was put her on the pace and keep her strong at the end of it. The race was not easy for Smoke N Mirrors or Foreal, who both went for the lead early on, and Smoke N Mirrors had to work hard on two occasions to keep it. Foreal was in and out before settling in midfield, but she had done a bit of work by then. Time To Fly came forward with a lap to go, where Dexter settled her and hoped she had some grunt left when it got tough. At the 600 metres, he pulled the winkers, and Time To Fly kept working generously from there.
It was Dexter's 49th win for the season and his first Group 1. Earlier in the night, he had come up with a gem of a drive behind Wild Storm, who started from the outside of the front line in a stand, led after 300 metres, trailed the favourite Absolute Magic, and with the light, delicate coaxing that trademarks Dexter's style, the horse was encouraged to stay in the fight and eventually prevail by a nose. That is what Time To Fly did, but she had more of a margin on Smoke N Mirrors, and her stablemate Luckisaladytonight, who was last at the 800 metres and ran home strongly.
Time To Fly was bred by Graeme Iggo, by Sands A Flyin from Limuru, an unraced Oblivion II mare from the family of Petro Star. Iggo also bred Limuru, and sold her after breeding Time To Fly to Bill Hickey and Gwenyth Smith, who have bred colts from her by Armbro Operative, Presidential Ball and Badlands Hanover and this season she was due to Washington VC.
Robert bought Time To Fly for Scott Plant and 78-year-old Rose Dakin after she won a 2-year-old trial at Ashburton for Polly Cleave. Plant is also in harness racing in a big way, with five mares at stud including Molly Darling, Abbeybell and Sav Blanc For Mee. He also has a yearling filly by Grinfromeartoear with Dunn, and Dakin is one of 10 racing Bahama Breeze, a 2-year-old filly by Christian Cullen in the stable.
While Time To Fly looks the lady on the track, she is not so lovely at home, where Robert is the only one who drives her. "She can get a bit snotty. She came with funny traits, and she's kept them. I work her in block blinds all the time, because she could just turn round and work the other way, and I always work her in front. I just keep her away from the others in case she does something silly." he said.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 7Feb08