FIRE BUG WINS FIRST-UP AT MENANGLE
The Overport Lodge developed filly (Wahs) Fire Bug was an impressive first-up winner at Menangle (NSW) on Tuesday, April 23, in 1:52.2 (1609m) for her new connections.
Fire Bug (3f Mach Three-Timeless Perfection), bred by Cavalla Bloodstock and a debut winner at her only NZ start at Winton in 1:55.3 (1609m) on March 23, was subsequently sold out of the Mark Jones stable.
Now raced by Scott McDonald from the Peter Hanson stable, (Wahs) Fire Bug was given every chance from the two gate by Luke McCarthy in Tuesday’s Alabar Pace.
She trailed Major Obahma until the home turn, then switched wide she cruised to the front and won with a bit in hand by 7.5 metres in the $9540 C0 pace.
Fire Bug is the third foal and individual winner for her Christian Cullen dam Timeless Perfection (1:56.9, seven wins from only 13 starts), having left earlier winners, Time Traveller (1:48.2, nine wins & $36,888) and First Class Lady (1:57.4, four wins & $31,155).
Her fourth foal, the two-year-old Plutonium Lady (2:00.8, qual), also shows promise for the Mark Jones stable. She ran seventh at her only start to date in Sweet On Me’s Magness Benrow Sires Stakes Fillies Heat at Addington on April 12.
Timeless Perfection is a half-sister to former smart NZ pacer, Malak Uswaad (1:49.4, USA, 21 wins & over $567,074), and Red Moon Rising (1:52.6, six wins $42,820), while an unraced sister Lady Moonlight has left another smart Australian winner in Blue Moon Rising (1:52.8, 13 wins & $135,294), the 2016 Victoria Tatlow 2YO Stakes and NSW Sapling Stakes winner, and another Overport Lodge winner in Getarattleon (1:57.2, four wins & $32,435).
Grand-dam Sirius Flight (1:54.4, US) is a daughter of 1993 NZ Oaks winner Pacific Flight (1:51.2, US, 47 wins & $562,345), a sister to smart 1980s pacer The Unicorn (1:57.8, 29 wins & $488,424).
Pacific Flight, who left a smart USA pacer in Droppinthehammer (1:50.2, nine wins & $323,617), has also starred in NZ as the grand-dam of Chicago Blues (p3, 1:58.1), the dam of NZ-bred WA superstar Chicago Bull (1:51.6, 40 wins from 61 starts & $1.6 million).
Fire Bug furthers a good recent run by ex-Overport Lodge pacers in Australia with Si Si Senior winning three of four NSW starts for the Michael Formosa stable.
He overcame the outside of the second row in his most recent win at 50-to-one in the $15,900 Central West Equine Honouree Stakes Final at Bathurst on March 29, in 1:55.3 (1730m).