Fly By Night ensured her place in the history books as she ran on gamely to land The Mercury Sprint over 1200m at Clairwood on Saturday, thus becoming the final Grade 1 winner on the honours board before the closure of the Garden Course. The Mike Bass trained Jet Master four year old was backed in from 10/1 into 9/2.  Well ridden by ace jockey Anthony Delpech she beat home a fast finishing Copper Parade with Showmetheway and Midnight Run in the minor placings.

The well-fancied Normanz had been widely expected to make the early running if his most recent victories were anything to go by but, with his late scratching, it was Casual Var who headed the early exchanges, with all of Barbosa, November Rain and Happy Forever close up. Midnight Run and Regal Eagle also kept a close eye on proceedings, ahead of Showmetheway while Fly By Night and Copper Parade raced towards the rear.

Fly By Night, racing against the outside rail was asked to go about her business entering the final third of the race and responded willingly enough but was initially stuck with nowhere to go. However, the gap duly materialised and she kicked clear. Copper Parade took a while to get going but, as was the case in the Computaform Sprint, he took off late and was doing his best work in the final stages. He could not quite get there on this occasion, though, and had to settle for second, beaten by half a length with Showmetheway also running on nicely to complete the trifecta.

Fly By Night came to KwaZulu-Natal for her winter campaign without anything in the form book to suggest she was Gr 1 material, but she has improved a good few lengths.and has enjoyed a tremendous season. She came within a whisker of toppling champion Via Africa in the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint in May and her subsequent failure in the Tibouchina Stakes was clearly all wrong. The drop back to six furlongs seems to have helped and one cannot fault her performance here.

Copper Parade is holding form remarkably well, having gone through some very inconsistent phases in the past. It's not the first time that he has placed in this race and Clairwood seems to bring out the best in him, so it was fitting that he should play his part in the course's grand finale.

Showmetheway and Midnight Run are tough handicappers who needed to show they could compete at this level and they ran well enough given the rise in class.

4 b f Jet Master - Fly The Wind by Model Man.

Bred by: Patricia Devine Investments (Pty) Ltd.

Owners: Messrs M J Jooste, Bryn Ressell and N M Shirtliff.