After charting his early career over shorter trips, Flying Ahead finally hit his straps when stepped up in distance to the 1700m of the $65,000 Initiation race on Friday night.
The Flying Spur three-year-old did run second to the smart Totality over 1400m at debut followed by a third to Von Snitzel over 1200m, but has not quite made his presence felt at his next two starts.
Besides increasing the distance, trainer Bruce Marsh also took off the blinkers which were fitted at his last run and the overall tweaking paid instant dividends.
After settling behind the leading section which was made up of the more fancied pair of Positive Thinking (Barend Vorster) and Sebastien (Joao Moreira), Flying Ahead (Ivaldo Santana) inched forward by the home turn to be within striking distance.
At that moment, Positive Thinking ($11) rolled off the fence while Sebastien ($12) launched his challenge on the outside. In a split-second decision, Santana elected to duck back to the inside, a move which proved decisive for the $62 shot.
While Positive Thinking kept plugging away and Sebastien was making heavy weather of it on the outside, Flying Ahead snuck up on the inside to score by 1 ¼ lengths from Positive Thinking who had to settle for a third second from seven runs. Sebastien stayed on for third another length away. The winning time was 1min 47.12secs.
“He's always been a real dour three-year-old and the longer trip was what he was looking for,” said Marsh who was at his 22nd success.
“He's got speed and he sticks on well. I was a little surprised when we switched back to the inside and I thought he would be wandering a bit.
“But the others came back to him and he just went past them.”
A three-year-old by Flying Spur out of the Zeditave mare Sibyl, Flying Ahead cost A$70,000 as a yearling.
