Zac Lloyd and Tim Clark both made the trip to Warwick Farm for one ride apiece and they ensured it wasn’t wasted by taking out the opening two races.
Lloyd worked hard for his pay cheque aboard the Matthew Smith-trained Idle Flyer ($1.35), the filly taking an age to reel in Metaphoricallly ($3.50) before surging late to get the verdict by a half-length, turning the three-horse Precise Air Handicap (1400m) into an intriguing spectacle.
Although Smith was the first t admit he had hoped for a much easier conquest.
“She only does the bare minimum, doesn’t she? He really had to get stuck into her late,” Smith said.
“But she found again so that’s a good sign of a good horse when they find again under pressure.
“The race was run at what looked a pretty leisurely gallop early and was a sprint home. She is only lightly raced, she is learning her craft, and she will be better, by the look of that, over a mile.”
Idle Flyer took her record to three wins from five starts and Smith is hopeful she can chime into some of the better fillies’ races over the autumn carnival.
The Ciaron Maher stable also has a healthy opinion of Clark’s winner Spaceballs, who overpowered her rivals late to take out Wednesday’s 2025 Stud and Stable Staff Awards Plate (1200m).
Like Idle Flyer, Spaceballs is by Dundeel and Maher’s Sydney foreman Johann Gerard-Dubord says they have loftier ambitions for the filly.
“She has always been showing plenty of talent, both runs last prep were very good while still doing a lot of things wrong,” Gerard-Dubord said.
“We just wanted to find the right starting point, especially at home, and now we can look at better things.
“Later on a race like the Kembla Grange Classic could be a nice race for her.”
The Group 3 Kembla Grange Classic (1600m) is on March 14.
