b4breeding

My eye was caught by tomorrow’s Gore harness meeting on the grass – Race 4, a 2yo by Panspacificflight will be racing.

Panspacificflight

I’m just about to do a blog on Panspacificflight, having seen quite a few of his progeny at the yearling sales this year, and following the 2yo starters he’s had to date – which is is oldest crop here in New Zealand. He’s a sire that impresses me.

The young gelding racing at Gore is named First Flight In, and his formline so far reads 747, which is a lovely coincidence when it comes to airplanes. This horse has a wee bit more ability than that formline shows, and he’s certainly no Fokker Friendship labouring down the runway.

He’s won a couple of Invercargill trials. He was 7th when he galloped at the beginning of his first start and lost all chance. His fourth looked promising. And his last race for 7th was the Kindergarten Stakes where he drew 8 and was never near the front but stuck on well to take a personal best time of 1.55.3.

His maternal family is an old one tracing back to Dream Star, Royden Dream and other Roydon Lodge broodmares.  His immediate dam is Sharjanter, a Christian Cullen mare, and her dam Falcon Magic was also leased by Brent and Sheree McIntyre a few years ago for two breedings to Panspacificflight. A Live Or Die half sister to Falcon Magic is Love To Live, the dam of Terror To Love.

Trainer Phil Devery bought him on type at last year’s yearling sales (Lot 253 Christshurch) for about $11,000, but he proved not easy to break in, being a bit of a nervy type. Phil says he’s a good gaited horse with ability, and it will just be a matter of waiting for him to “grow into his mind and get a bit of maturity.” Looking at the videos of his races, I’d agree with that. He’s got a lovely stride, good reach, but as Phil says it will be a bit unknown on the grass at Gore particularly as he has drawn bang in the middle of the mobile gate, so there is no unruly mark to assist if he gets stirred up.

Phil says he will have to get a line on him over the next month or so and see whether it is worth keeping on for the bigger races or giving him a break and bringing him back as a nice 3yo.

Although his sire is well over 16hh, Phil says First Flight In is not a big horse, but is a good looking one.

So not a Jumbo Jet and not a Fokker. I will be watching tomorrow to see how the formline develops!

From article by Matt Smith Otago Daily Times when the horse qualified late December 2013:

Macca Lodge sire Panspacificflight sired his first qualifier at the Roxburgh Trotting Club trials on Sunday.

The American-bred sire, who won his first four starts as a 2yr-old, left a similar ability to run early on his 2yr-old crops in the United States. The son of Panderosa is only available through frozen semen at the Gore-based breeding operation, but has produced 62 live foals from 102 mares served in his three seasons in New Zealand.

His first qualifier, First Flight In, is out of the unraced Christian Cullen mare, Sharjanter. First Flight In’s time of 2.01.5 for the one mile was a comfortable 4.9sec inside the required time to qualify for driver Andrew Armour and Invercargill trainer Phil Devery.

Update post race: Phillip Devery would have been a bit frustrated as the race gave no better line on the real ability of this horse, with a false start caused by another horse probably stirring the youngster up. When they got underway again, he broke and caught the field easily, but broke again and was out of play after that. If he can develop some maturity to handle that sort of situation, he will change his formline around. I’m not the only one noting him – he went out favourite.