Fiery Pegasus is an easy winner of the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic (JC Photos)
The crack Captain Of All filly Fiery Pegasus is on the comeback trail and is doing as well as ever according to her trainer Joe Soma, who is still undecided on the route she will be taking this season. Meanwhile, his classy gelding Back In Business is slowly mending after the fall he took in last season’s Allied-Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile.
Joe said about Fiery Pegasus, “The Spring Fillies And Mares Challenge won’t suit us because we will have to carry a Gr 1 penalty, so we’ll just have a look when the program gets out and see where we want to go. She might go for the Summer Cup or the Paddock Stakes, or she might go for both of them, it just depends on what races are available and then we can go from there. But she is doing very well. She has had a good rest. She had a very hard run in the Oaks, harder than I had initially thought, but thank goodness she has recovered very well. She is back to her old self.”
The Greenacres Trust (Marsh Shirtliff) and Hemel ‘N Aarde-bred filly was a strong contender for the Equus Three-year-old Champion Filly award as she won the Gr 1 Wilgerbosrift SA Classic by 4,75 lengths and won the Gr 2 Wilgerbosdrift Bridget Oppenheimer SA Oaks. She was also a narrow runner up in both the Gr 3 Betway Jo’Burg Spring Fillies And Mares Challenge as well as in the Gr 3 Betway Fillies Mile and she was a narrow fourth in the Gr 2 Wigerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas.
In the SA Oaks Richard Fourie found himself in front after Fiery Pegasus had jumped well and she took a keen hold. Instead of fighting her he let her stride out and she opened a big lead. She managed to find enough in the finish to keep a fast-finishing World Of Alice at bay by a short-head.
Joe said, “There was heavy rain for two or three weeks going into the Oaks, so we didn’t have the ideal prep. She would have beaten the same horses on a normal day by further. The rain didn’t suit us, she wasn’t super fit like I would have liked to have had her. When we saddled her up it felt like she was going to race in the Computaform Sprint. I just left it to Richard and he let her stride rather than fighting her. That’s why he holds the record for number of wins in a season. He’s such a great jockey. Without him on the horse … I have no doubt we would not have won with anyone else aboard. But she has done very well since then.”
He said about the luckless William Longsword gelding Back In Business, “Since he had that fall in the Charity Mile he did both suspensories on the one leg and it’s taken us a long time to get him back. We were very worried that he wouldn’t come back at all, but slowly, slowly we’re winning the battle. It will be a while before we run him. When you look at the form of last year’s Jo’Burg Spring Challenge that he won, he beat Gladatorian by 2,70 lengths receiving just 1,5kg It messed up my whole season by him falling due to just sheer bad riding in the Charity Mile, in which they were going and then pulling up, going and pulling up. So it was a massive pity, because I always believed he had the talent to hold his own with the very best in the country and Gladatorian proved me right. We hope that everything’s alright and when he’s ready to come back and race hopefully all stands up, but it will be a very difficult task to get him back to his best.”
Joe also hopes to have last year’s Betway Summer Cup third-placed Rule By Force ready for this year’s Summer Cup. This horse has had tendon issues since his run in the Premier’s Champions Challenge in 2023. The rains earlier this year did him no favours.
Jo said, “We had to nurse him back. He has always been a fantastic, game horse with a massive heart, so hopefully we can get him back to what he achieved last year.”
Joe has already had four wins this season, including a double, and his last 12 runners have all finished in the money.
He concluded, “We have a lot of nice young horses we haven’t run yet. We take our time with horses, so I think it’s a yard worth following over the next few months. We’re having a nice run at the moment and they’re all running very well.”
