A smart frontrunning ride saw Black Fiery finding his way back to the winner’s enclosure in the $60,000 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1100m on Friday night.
After electing for waiting tactics at two previous rides, jockey Corey Brown this time around bounced out the Tale Of The Cat four-year-old from his wide alley to shoot to a clear lead upon settling down.
Once in front, Black Fiery steadied the ship but soon drew the close attention of $11 favourite Lign Em Up (John Powell) while the second fancy Eclair Sensation (Manoel Nunes), who bungled the start, had in the meantime made up for lost time and was doing his best to tap on what was left in the tank.
But Brown’s mount dashed all their hopes to the ground once he flicked on the switches into top gear, scooting off to wave them goodbye. Raced by the RX Stable, Black Fiery ($38) sure zoomed in like a sports car to defeat Lign Em Up by two lengths with Eclair Sensation sticking on bravely to run third, separated by the same margin. The winning time was 1min 5.82secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
Winning trainer Theo Kieser expressed some mild surprise at the return to winning ways of Black Fiery, guessing the first-up run from a short layoff must have improved him by leaps and bounds.
“He had some issues with his knees and we had to manage it properly,” said the South African handler.
“He was probably short of a trial at his last run because he just blew out in the end. We decided to run him in a couple of weeks instead and hoped he would come on from that.
“But we were still not confident as he had also drawn a bad barrier, and he was also up against a class field.”
Brown said he was also not prepared to be at the head of affairs upon despatch, but capitalised on the opportunity to good effect in the end.
“At his last start, he just knocked up and was quite disappointing,” said Brown. “I had no intention to lead, but as there was a lack of speed, I just let him run along.
“I had him running within his own steam from there on in and the race was over as soon as he kicked clear in the home straight.”
Black Fiery has now brought his record to three wins and four placings from 11 starts for prizemoney inching close to the $140,000 mark.
