JUST OF FIRE Breaks Maiden with Easy Win at His Second Start

17 Sep 24

Dynamics Syndications lightly raced gelding JUST ON FIRE (by Justify ex Fire Opal) on Monday at Tamworth made his way into the winner's circle at just his second career start, when taking out race one, the Peel Valley Tyres maiden plate over 1600 metres.

Yet another winner trained for us by our almost-private trainer Jason Deamer, our galloper is one of the tallest horses we have ever raced.

Already 16.3hh, having inherited the size from his sire, he had only been to the sport once, four weeks earlier, over an unsuitable 1200 metres at Kembla Grange, where they sprinted too quickly at that short trip.

Here at Tamworth, he was jumping up 400 metres into this event, a trip which was always going to be better suited, based upon his tall, leggy frame and stout style pedigree.

Looking at him in the parade ring, he still looked some 6 to 12 months away from being the finished product. However, that does not hide class, and our gelding showed on the racetrack what he has been showing his trainer at home.

Piloted by Blake Spriggs, our dynamic duo led from the time the gates crashed back until the flash of the camera on the finish line.

However, the Tamworth mile start is on the point of a bend and a wide draw had us trapped 5-deep after the first 50m, and then a runner underneath us lost its rudder and bumped us hard as it wanted to run off the track. That early skirmish and extra distance we were forced to travel would have bought a lesser horse undone.

Blake was a wake up to what was happening and pushed the handlebars down, doing some extra work but crossed the face of the field to find the paint after 250m of the race, from this point, the race was over.

Allowing our horse to get into a rhythm and bowl along thanks to a masterful judgement of tempo by Blake, JUST ON FIRE spread the field out, and after the first two furlongs there was over ten lengths covering them.

Next, Blake was giggling as he was able to peel off and get away with three soft sectionals in the mid part of the race.

Mathematically this would make the make it near impossible for this grade of chasers to be able to reel-in our horse who was going strongly in the lead.

There was no change in order from the 1400m until the 400-metre marker when the field began to round the home turn. As the field made their moves, Blake just looked over his shoulder, saw nothing was coming, and then under hands and heels, asked our big horse to extend.

JUST ON FIRE quickly responded and opened a gap, but he is still immature both physically and mentally with racecraft.

So, by the 250m, he was starting to stargaze and look around, as he was well in front and not being pressured, he must have been thinking his job was done.

Blake could sense our horse had lost concentration and started to ride him hard for 50m and this got JUST ON FIRE to concentrate again, and with 150m remaining to run, the race was safely all but over.

Blake was able to be very kind on JUST ON FIRE over the concluding stages and our Dynamic Duo were able to just roll to the line under their own steam to make the camera flash 1.34 lengths ahead of his closest rival.

JOB DONE!

Sky Channel’s commentator Ben Walker interviewed Blake Spriggs when he returned to scale:

“Blake, you wanted to take bad luck out of the equation when you decided to push forward and from there it was pretty much all over.”

Blake answered: “Yeah, I have ridden a lot of winners in these colours over the years, and Jason Deamer was my old boss, and the thing you know is they are well placed, well educated, and they’re fit, and he was certainly well placed today, and I just thought he’s not really the sort of horse that understands what he’s doing yet, but I didn’t want to leave it to chance. I just wanted him to go to the front, go at his own tempo.

“In all honesty, he never really hit top gear. I was actually hoping I wouldn’t have to hit him. I thought he was going to win comfortably, but he started to look around, and when I gave him a tap he raced away. So he’s certainly not the finished product yet, but he is going to continue to improve under Jason’s training.”

Ben Walker added in: “He’s a big leggy fella as well, so you can imagine 1600m today, he’s certainly going to stretch out over a bit further as well.”

Blake responded: “Yeah, to go from 1200m to 1600m you have to have good staying ability and he certainly built that way, and I think as he gets up over further, and he’s able to just coast along the way he did today, he’s going to really pick up what his job is, and certainly he will improve.”

PEEL VALLEY TYRES Maiden Plate (1600m) Good 4 Time: 1:38.28 Last 600m: 0:35.88

1st of 8 TAMW 16Sep24 1600m Good4 MDN-SW $27,000 ($13,950) Blake Spriggs 59kg Barrier 7
2nd Just Breathe 57kg 1.34L, 3rd French Delivery 59kg 2.72L. 1:38.28 (600m 35.88), $2.35/$2.30

JUST ON FIRE 4yo Bay Gelding D.O.B: 09-Oct-2020

by JUSTIFY (USA) from FIRE OPAL (USA)

2-1:0:0 Prizemoney: $15,000

CONGRATULATIONS to our TEAM that Own and Race JUST ON FIRE: Dynamic Ladies, Mr R J Gall, Mr G A Hoult, Mr T J Van Lathum, Mr S M Kelly, Mr R Nieuwenhoven, Mr R G Robinson, Mr A Cranes, Mr J E R Harris, Mr J Yianni, Mr M A Wallace, Mrs A Little, Mr M J Little, Mr G J Cooper, Mrs M A Vaughan, Mr M F O'Reilly, Mr D Goodwin, Mr J W Lyons

This was another Individual Winner for Dynamic Syndications Team, taking our overall tally to 309 Individual Winners from 348 Individual Runners which is a massive 88.8% Winners:Runners Strike Rate.

Whilst 341 Individual Horses have Earned Prizemoney from 348 to Race which is 98%.

This victory was our =9th Race Win for the new racing season which is six weeks old, and it was our 899th Race Win overall as we get very close to ticking off the box on 900 Race Wins.

SUCCESS breeds SUCCESS!

Congratulations to all our Co-ownership teams to have visited the winner’s circle with us.