GARRY FRAZER has been in the industry too long to be making rash statements. The astute Hawkesbury mentor has been training for more than four decades and has enjoyed success on several occasions at the highest level. So, when he says his lightly-raced three-year-old SPRIGHT is “potentially a Group 1 filly”, it’s definitely time to take notice.
Unbeaten so far in three runs this season, Spright showed in the spring that she is one of the country’s best three-year-old sprinting fillies. She is about to begin a new campaign at Royal Randwick on February 11 against her own sex in the $200,000 Light Fingers Stakes (1200m). The Group 2 feature will be run at set weights; all fillies carrying 56kg. Spright, a daughter of Hinchinbrook, has raced eight times so far for three wins and four placings and her earnings total just over $350,000. She finished sixth at her debut behind Honesty Prevails in the Group 3 Widden Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens on January 30 last year, then hasn’t been out of a place in her subsequent seven outings.
Spright lived up to the promise she showed in her juvenile season by shedding her maiden status first-up at Rosehill last September before taking another step in overpowering the males in the Listed Brian Crowley Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on October 15. That victory prompted Frazer to give her an opportunity on the big stage at the Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington; a move he didn’t regret even though Melbourne had not been kind to him in the past. Spright lined up against her own sex in the Group 3 Red Roses Stakes (1100m) down the straight on Oaks Day (November 3) and turned in a sizzling performance to come from 15th at the 800m and run down her rivals. “I gave her four weeks off after Melbourne,” Frazer said. “You can’t really give them any longer when you are looking at the autumn. “She has grown a little bit, and definitely hasn’t gone back in conformation. “I’m sure she will continue to get better.”
Spright was given an easy time in a 1000m barrier trial on her home track last Monday (January 16). Partnered by regular trackwork rider, Frazer’s son Jordan (who weighs around 70kg), the filly took a backward step when the gates opened and missed the start. After conceding the field many lengths and making the home turn wide, she warmed up nicely to finish fourth without being put under any pressure. “I was happy with what she did, and she pulled up well. “I’ll trial her again at Randwick on January 27 and then she will be ready to resume in the Light Fingers on February 11.”
Frazer won dual Group 1s (Queensland Derby and George Main Stakes) in 1995 with Turridu and another with Quick Star in the 1999 Champagne Stakes at Randwick. Nearly 18 years have elapsed since the latter, but the affable Frazer is looking confidently to the future with Spright. “Even though she was really good in the spring, I always felt she would be better this year,” he said. “Potentially, she’s a Group 1 filly.” Spright carries the famous white and purple colours of the White family; as does his rising 10-year-old Hurrara, who was runner-up to Dal Cielo in the Summer Sprint (1000m) at Warwick Farm on January 7 and has won more than half a million dollars in prizemoney. It is through his lengthy association with the family that Spright entered his Hawkesbury stable. “I started breaking in horses for the Whites to be trained by the late Jack Denham at Rosehill, and Hurrara was one of the first horses they gave me to train,” he explained.
Spright’s dam, the Dash For Cash mare Dashoff, won a Gosford Maiden (1100m) in 2010 from only a handful of starts before being retired. Frazer was on the ball and went to a Dubbo sale to buy her first foal (by California Dane) for only $4000. Racing as Way We Go, he won his first two starts in Sydney in June and July, 2015 before finishing fifth to Burnt Bridges (subsequently sold to Hong Kong) at Canterbury at his third start. Tendon trouble has since curtailed his career, but Frazer hasn’t given up hope of getting the now five-year-old back to the track. “I’m persevering with him because I know how much ability he has,” he said.
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Frazer also prepared Dashoff’s second foal Mine Two (by I Am invincible) and she won at Randwick on November, 2014. She has been retired and is now in foal. Dashoff was sold (in foal to Hinchinbrook) for what is now a bargain $10,000 at the 2013 Inglis Easter broodmare sale. That foal, of course, is Spright and Frazer and the White’s son Greg got together to purchase her for $100,000 at the 2015 Inglis Premier yearling sale in Melbourne. The family connection doesn’t end there. Frazer also has a two-year-old half-sister (by Arlington) to Spright. She will race as Ivy Blue, but her trainer says she is a “bit immature” and won’t rush her.
Frazer has returned home with three yearlings from the Magic Millions sales at the Gold Coast, and isn’t planning a busy autumn campaign with his classy filly. Brisbane in the winter is also high on the agenda. How prophetic it would be if Spright could give Frazer another Group 1 triumph 22 years after his breakthrough there at racing’s elite level!