She wasn't big but she was mighty tough, known as the "Garbo of the Turf"

Flight was an Australian Thoroughbred racemare that was the highest stakes winning mare in Australasia. Her courageous efforts made her a crowd favourite during the post World War II era and she experienced victories over some of the great horses of the era, including Shannon, Bernborough, Royal Gem and Russia. A bay daughter of Royal Step her dam was the unplaced mare, Lambent (NZ) by Tractor (GB). A half-sister to Flight, Sparkle (NZ) by Colonel Cygnus, won the 1940 Dunedin Cup. Quite the opposite of Eurythmic, whose bloodlines were predominantly British on the sire’s side and Australian on the dam’s side, Flight’s sire and grandsires were native Australians. She was purchased at the 1942 Sydney yearling sales by Brian Crowley for 60 guineas.

Two-time W.S. Cox Plate winner Flight was ample proof that in horse racing, unlike many human sporting endeavours that depend on size, speed, strength and gender makes very little difference. Even though she was small in height, her impressive girth, equivalent to that of much taller horses, gave her the heart, lungs and musculature to compete on equal footing with some of the most proficient stallions of her time, including the mighty champion Bernborough. During her career, in and around World War II, she was a crowd pleaser of the first level. Three horses, spanning over a century, with Flight in the middle. The impressive mare can be legitimately mentioned in the same sentence with Makybe Diva and Black Caviar, especially when it is considered that she was the highest earning stakes winner amongst all mares up to that time.

She was first past the post on her very first attempt as a two-year-old. Her big win for the season would have been the Champagne Stakes, six furlongs at that time, which was later lengthened and made the last leg of the Juvenile Triple Crown that consists of the Golden Slipper Stakes and the ATC Sires Produce Stakes. She did not run in the Golden Slipper, since that race did not debut until 1957, but she did come close in the Sires Produce Stakes, losing by a head only to Mayfowl. She won another race, the Victoria Park Juvenile Handicap, carrying above 63 kg, such was the perception of her abilities.

When Flight started to compete as a three-year-old, significant races fell to her. She closed out 1943 with the Hobartville Stakes and the first of her two Craven Plates. In the New Year, she won the Adrian Know Stakes and several others before posting a second in the AJC Derby. A close second, less than a head to Goose Boy in the Doncaster Handicap, and a similar margin to Katanga in the AJC All-Aged Stakes. Two third place finishes at Rosehill followed to conclude her efforts at the age of three. As a four-year-old, Flight had a bit of a drop off, making 12 jumps and winning just twice, beating her nemesis Katanga in the Warwick Stakes and the Colin Stephen Stakes. Katanga came back to push the her second in the Chipping Norton Stakes and the Autumn Stakes. She posted another three third place finishes, so seven placings from 12 starts, decent by most standards, was the line for that season. When she went to the track as a five-year-old, she placed 15 times from 18 starts, winning eight times, including her first Cox Plate win in 1945. She won the Craven Plate for a second time, and won on four other occasions in Melbourne.

Against Bernborough in the Chipping Norton Stakes she lost by a head. The mare was tried twice in Brisbane, running unplaced in the Doomben 10,000 and second in the QTC El Alamein Stakes. Flight acquitted herself quite nicely as a six-year-old. She won a second Cox Plate in 1946, although interestingly, the race was run in two divisions that year, with a horse named Leonard winning the race in the lesser division. Another prestigious win was the L.K.S. Mackinnon Stakes. She also took first place in the C. F. Orr Stakes and the AJC Plate. When her racing career came to a halt after 1947, when she again won the Essendon Stakes, Flight had made 65 starts, winning 24 times and placing second or third another 27 times.

Her only daughter was, aptly enough, Flight’s Daughter, who would produce Skyline, that won the 1958 STC Golden Slipper Stakes and the AJC Derby and won or placed 17 times out of 28 starts. Another productive foal of Flight’s Daughter was Sky High, also a Golden Slipper winner. Flight was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2007.

RACE RECORD - 65: 24-19-9

EARNINGS - £31,429

AJC Champagne Stakes (1943)

Hobartville Stakes (1943)

Craven Plate (1943, 1945)

Adrian Knox Stakes (1944)

Warwick Stakes (1944)

Colin Stephen Stakes (1944)

W S Cox Plate (1945, 1946)

C F Orr Stakes (1946)

St George Stakes (1946)

Essendon Stakes (1946, 1947)

AJC Plate (1946)

LKS Mackinnon Stakes (1946)