Flying Circle Makes Another Trip To Kentucky
November 12th, 2007Miami Gardens, Fla. (November 12, 2007)—
Walter (Buddy) New’s 5-year-old Kentucky homebred mare Flying Circle has spent her entire career based at Calder Race Course with trainer David Fawkes, but has made four trips back to Kentucky for stakes engagements over three years, and is set to make another this week to run in Sunday’s $100,000 Mariah’s Storm Stakes at Churchill Downs over five furlongs on turf.
“She blew out great this morning and she did it real easy,†said Fawkes after the daughter of Pembroke breezed three furlongs in a ‘bullet’ 35 2/5. “She’ll get on a van tomorrow morning and Manny (Aguilar) will go up to ride her, and hope we have a little better luck than her last trip up there.â€
Flying Circle scored the biggest victory of her career winning the $250,000 Distaff Turf Sprint Championship over the Calder course on Aug. 11 and didn’t run again until the $100,000 Buffalo Trace Franklin County Stakes going 5 ½ furlongs on turf at Keeneland on Oct. 12, finishing fourth. However, she was beaten only a length for it all after being totally eliminated at the start and racing last of 12 until the upper stretch and then uncorking a great stretch run to finish fourth.
“She really never had a chance after the start,†said Fawkes. “It was just one of those things.†Reviewing Flying Circle’s first three trips to Kentucky, the trainer recalled, “She won the Open Mind (Stakes) at Churchill as a 3-year-old in the spring and we tried to stretch her out in the Mrs. Revere Stakes (G2) in the fall, but she just doesn’t go that far.
“We had her up there (Keeneland) again last fall for the Buffalo Trace and it rained all day and they took it off the turf and ran it on the Polytrack. She just hated it and came back body sore and we had to give her a pretty good break. Then this spring she finished a good third in the Mamzelle during Derby week, but Morris Nicks’ filly (Smitty’s Sunshine) was just so good at the time that we just got outrun.â€
