Fairplay starts winning night for Mark Pitt and Emma Stewart

Promising four year old Fairplay (Rock N Roll Heaven) passed his test in open class with an impressive all the way success in the Group 3 Casey Classic at Melton on Saturday evening.

Confidently driven by Mark Pitt, Fairplay was able to cross Jilliby Nitro on the pole and Yambukian before stable mate Storms Collide went around three wide to face the breeze.

FAIRPLAY 14 NOV REPLAY

And from then he faced no serious threat in the run as Pitt was able to run the race on his own terms. Jilliby Nitro who had the sit behind the leader looked some sort of a danger on leaving the back straight but having run his last two quarters in 27.8 and 27.1 seconds, Fairplay gave nothing else a chance as he eased to an eight metre win over Jilliby Nitro with the veteran Bulletproof Boy fighting on for third after being wide in the final lap.

Mark Pitt stated after the event.

I was super happy with him. He’s in great form. Taking that next step against some of these that have been in some very, very good races all their life . But as we know the barrier draw was probably a bit of an advantage too and once we got there and we control it a little bit, it was going to be hard for the others to beat him.

He took a little bit of coming back, just a little bit so I just let him run through the lead time, probably a little bit stronger than I probably expected. But once we got him back underneath us nice he felt really good and relaxed good.

Pitt certainly rates Fairplay highly amongst Emma Stewart’s other quality pacers.

It’s very hard to get a guide because you drive a lot of the good ones. But he’s got to be right up there with some of the better ones that we’ve driven. But as we know, they always seem to come through their grades and they can hit a flat spot when they get to this next level. But this guy seems to be taking it with ease.

Fairplay’s dam Illustrator only won one race in her career but at stud she’s been a wonderful producer as all ten of her progeny to make it to the races have won at least one race. Her best performers have been Prince Potter, Yankee Strutter and Image of Starzz but Fairplay could easily be the best one for date for his owners Bruce and Vicki Edward.

Fairplay has only had 18 starts but under trainer Emma Stewart’s guidance has already has won nine with $87,650 in stake money and he looks certain to improve on that number as his career progresses.

It proved to be a winning night for both Mark Pitt and Emma Stewart as they went on to win another three races with their classy pacers Cardigan Dan (Downbytheseaside), DynamiteDan (Somebeachsomewhere) and finally with Brooklyn Dan (Captain Crunch).

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink