It might have taken Just Too Fly a little longer than anticipated to shed his maiden status, but for managing owner, Kim Doak, the end justifies the means after he clinched the final big race of the two-year-old season at Ascot on Saturday.
Denied feature juvenile wins previously when runner-up in the Perth Stakes (1100m) and Karrakatta Plate (1200m), Just Too Fly went one better and underlined why trainer Luke Fernie was so keen to snap him up as a yearling.
Not to be denied after his two earlier misses, Just Too Fly, with jockey Brad Parnham for company, dug deep and was up for the fight when he scored a strong half-head win in the Group 3 WA Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m).
Capping a lucrative two-year-old carnival for Parnham, Just Too Fly settled second and was on even terms with Snitzalatte with 200m left to run, but pulled clear in the run home to record a strong win over Fila Mia and Statewide,
Just Too Fly continues Doak and Fernie’s close connection, the successful association formed after the fourth-generation trainer branched out on his own and moved to Perth to launch his Ascot stable in 2020.
Just Too Fly, a $210,000 Inglis Classic yearling, has reached $246,840 in prize money and joined Ripcord and Wild Belle as recent stakes winners for Fernie and Doak.
After thinking Just Too Fly, a son of Justify, was out of his price range at the sales in 2024, Doak is now all smiles about the future prospects of his promising colt.
“This is one that Luke just liked straight away,” Doak said on Tabradio.
“I’ve learnt in the past few years that when he looks at the horses and I look at Luke and he gets excited, I take note.
“He really wanted to have a go at this particular horse and to be fair, I thought we were no chance.
“I thought chestnut, Justify horse, well bred, that’s going to be outside of our price range.
“On the day bidding we managed to get lucky and I remember calling Luke after.
“We couldn’t stop laughing, like little kids giggling on how lucky we’d been.
“It was a good feeling then and it’s an even better feeling now.
“We just know we have a good horse in our pocket.”
Just Too Fly gave Parnham the second-leg of a two-year-old double after partnering Talkanco in the Karrakatta Plate.
It was his third Sires after Bustling (2024) won last year and Snowdome in 2022.
Doak said Just Too Fly shapes as a Guineas horse when he resumes later this year.
Julio Santarelli