‘Sandfly’ has Negus smitten

Sandflies are notorious pests renowned for prospering in hot and humid conditions. However, the same can’t be said for the harness racing equivalent in the Bruce Negus-trained Sandfly Bay (Southwind Frank).

The three-year-old filly has made every post a winner since beginning her racing career back in the Autumn, and on Friday night (June 9.) at Addington Raceway, the daughter of Southwind Frank unwound impressively yet again to record back-to-back victories on a chilly night at headquarters.

Away well from the 2600m stand, Sandfly Bay put in an uncharacteristic gallop in the hands of regular pilot Sheree Tomlinson just as she looked to be settling handy to the speed.

Safely down and trotting, the pair spotted the leaders a good 20 lengths as they tucked away second last on the marker pegs and looked to be taking shortcuts home. However, if there is one thing punters have learnt about the Negus-trained filly in her limited career to date, it’s that she is potent coming from off the speed.

Sandfly Bay showed a remarkable turn of foot on debut when coming from near last at Banks Peninsula to narrowly miss winning her maiden. She then showed great speed again when coming from four the pegs to take ground off the G1 placed The Ivy League on a problematic Methven surface. Having had a five-week freshen-up between races, she was presented at Ashburton on June 4 and exploded down the centre of the track to reel in the runaway leader, Peaks Moment.

With this in mind, few would have expected the lightly tried filly to repeat her heroics, having lost crucial ground on her more experienced rivals. Sparing the Kevin Townley trained Murano eight lengths at the 400m, Sheree Tomlinson set Sandfly Bay alight, and she responded purposefully.

The pair timed their run to perfection to win by a half-length, suggesting the daughter of Southwind Frank might have a bright future in store.

SANDFLY BAY REPLAY

“Bruce has always thought she had a bit of ability,” said Tomlinson post-race with Harness Racing Unhinged’s Nigel Armstrong.

“In saying that, it’s always a massive step up from winning your maiden to winning in the one-win grade, but you have to give it to the horse.

“She went for a wee gallop early and got lost heading into that first bend. She came back down, and I was trying to find the shortcuts, but she was trucking good enough for me to put her in the race late, and she got up.

Bruce definitely has a soft spot for this wee girl. He’s liked her from day dot. I remember the first time he was driving her at home, and he came up beside me with a massive grin on his face, and he’s done a great job to get two wins from her so soon,” she said.

Sandfly Bay is the second foal from the unraced Love You mare, Jeepers I Love You.

Jeepers I Love You is a half/full to seven other winners from the Gee Whizz II mare, Jeepers, a G3 winner herself for her breeder/owner/trainer, Phillip Iggo, in 1996.

Sandfly Bay’s sire, Southwind Frank, was the 2015 USA and Canadian 2YO Trotting Colt of the Year and a former world champion juvenile trotter. He has, however, struggled to translate some of his brilliance on the track into his newfound career in the breeding shed, with fertility issues plaguing the son of Muscle Hill’s ability to produce live foals, which has been the most significant barrier to success thus far.

He has just 222 registered horses from his first five North American crops.

That’s not to say he can’t produce a smart trotter—quite the opposite.

Southwind Frank is the sire of 12 $100,000 earners. He has produced two of the last three Pennsylvania Sire Stakes 2YO Fillies Final Winners in Bond($602,264) and Flawless Country ($567,819), as well as the winner of a 2021 Hambletonian Heat in Delayed Hanover ($543,880).

His progeny have earnt $5.7 million in stakes, which is virtually identical to another former PA sire in Creatine, who entered the breeding ranks in the same year (2017). The difference between the pair is the latter has sired a millionaire and USA Trotter of the Year in Jujubee, and also 17 more winners (75) from 6 fewer eligible foals to race.

Southwind Frank left Diamond Creek Farms this season to join the Winbak Farm stallion roster in Delaware, where he is far and away the best-credentialed sire in the state. It will be interesting to see whether a change in scenery brings with it a change in fortune, and few would be surprised if the 2 million dollar earner was to deliver on his promise.

His frozen semen has been available in New Zealand for a few seasons via Stallions Australasia, with his oldest down-under progeny being three-year-olds. Very few NZ breeders have taken a punt on the champion son of Muscle Hill, and with just 16 live foals and his largest crop being his first of just five, it should come as no surprise that Sandfly Bay is his only winner to date.

What should come as little surprise, however, is that it’s his daughters delivering the goods, with most of his top offspring in North America being fillies. Clare and Dave McGowan have Southwind Franks’s only other NZ starter thus far, the four-start filly It Aint Me Babe, who looks like she will win at short notice, having narrowly been pipped of a G3 placing in the North Island Trotting Oaks at just her third start.

Sandfly Bay’s pedigree attracted the new owner and trainer securing the filly for $700 from a standardbred auction site in February.

“We bought her off an auction site to be a racehorse or a broodmare, and she turned out to be quite a nice trotter, so breeding will have to wait,” said Negus.

“She’s a lovely filly, but she has a breathing issue which is why she wears a ‘Cornell collar’, but it seems to be working. I’m a risk taker, and everything the former owner said about her has been exactly that. She has a breathing issue which would stop most horses, but the collar done up nice and tight prevents her from flipping her soft palate. So far, so good, and if she never wins another race, she will be a good broodmare now.

“Sheree thinks she should have a spell, and she is probably right because that next grade is going to be tough, and we don’t need to be doing that. The three-year-old fillies’ races go later in the season, and she may be good enough to compete in those if we look after her, so I might give her three weeks off.

“Her two wins haven’t surprised me because she works with the pacers at home and has that much speed, I like to think she is an Oaks filly, but that is a long way away,” said Negus.

The first of the features for trotting fillies come on September 21 with the G3 Sires Stakes Classique for $40,000 at Addington Raceway. Sandfly Bay would have to make a late payment to be eligible.

Other options open to the fairer sex include the Southland Trotting Oaks for $20,000 on October 6, with the G1 $100,000 NZ Trotting Oaks two months later on December 1.

Negus who isnt often seen in the winners circle was quizzed at to his rare appearance in the Addington birdcage after the impressive victor Friday night.

“I usually have a couple of others in on the night but this evening it was just her, and as the owner i am just so proud of what she has achieved,” he said.

For complete Addington race fields, click here.

By Brad Reid, for Harnesslink