The first time Tony McEvoy saw Natural Fling he “had to have her.”
The first time she galloped, she showed why.
Now, the first time she steps out in Group 1 company, he thinks she is going to prove it to everyone in racing.
Natural Fling is a $3.50 favourite for Saturday’s Moir Stakes where her natural speed and talent made it an easy decision to run her.
“I had Sunlight win a Manikato Stakes as a three-year-old filly, Hey Doc won that race as a three-year-old, so taking on the older horses with the right three-year-old doesn’t scare me,” McEvoy said.
“The market says it is the right race for her, but she wouldn’t be there if she wasn’t an impressive stakes winner already.
“But it is where we thought she would be before now.”
The Home Affairs filly is out of Fastnet Rock mare The Natural, which McEvoy trained and he wanted her on first sight.
“She was just too fast for her own legs,” McEvoy remembered Natural Fling’s mum.
“We look at these fillies four or five times as yearling, but the first time I saw her I said to the boys she is coming home with us.”
The frustration of mum’s career revisited Natural Fling as she simply couldn’t stand to a preparation as an early two-year-old.
“The first gallop we gave her, where she went home one [furlong], Calvin and I looked at each other, thought she was our Golden Slipper winner,” McEvoy said
“She just kept going sore when we worked, so we couldn’t get there.
“She was soft boned and had to wait for her. She eventually stood up and she hasn’t disappointed us.”
Natural Fling would win her maiden at Caulfield in May before running into The Next Episode in the Magic Millions two-year-old Classic and then returned with a show of sustained speed in the Quezette Stakes a couple of weeks ago.
“She is ready to take this step and gets her chance with no weight,” McEvoy said.
The McEvoys will start the springs of Ambassadorial, who holds a Cox Plate nomination, in the So You Think Stakes, and La Barrita, who is on the Thousand Guineas path, in the Atlantic Jewel Stakes on Saturday.
