Breeding & Racing Magazine

South African Star Mythical Flight Bound For Europe

Following last weekend's national record-breaking victory by unbeaten 3YO gelding Mythical Flight (Jet Master-Mythical Bird, by Harry Hotspur) in the Gr1 Computaform Sprint (1000m) at Turffontein, "the fastest horse in South African racing history is heading for Europe, with York a likely first stop," reported racingpost.co.uk. Mythical Flight (ridden by Brett Smith for trainer Sean Tarry & owners Chris van Niekerk & Markus Jooste) clocked 54.96sec (the 1st horse to break the 55-second barrier in South Africa) in registering his 7th successive victory (also including January's Gr1 Cape Flying Championship over 1000m at Kenilworth). Tarry confirmed: "I'm having a meeting with my owner (van Niekerk) later this week to decide how we want to play the programme. There's another Gr1 in South Africa for Mythical Flight next month & if we go for that, the quarantine rules mean we will have to miss the Nunthorpe at York in August; if that's the case, we'll go for France's Prix de l'Abbaye & then on to Hong Kong in December. But if we decide we've nothing else to prove at home, we'll put him straight into quarantine, so that we can run at York, before going on to France & the Far East." Tarry summed up: "He's a very exciting horse, but we won't know how good he is until he's raced against some of the best in the world."