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Overview
By New South Wales who raced in England for two seasons. Did not race at 2 years. Thereafter won Tangier Stakes, Coombe Stakes, Dante Stakes, St.James Palace Stakes over 1600m and R6,950. Feature race winners include In Full Flight, Mildenhall, Gideon, Hittite, Justine, Kentford, Halloween, Wagga Wagga, Looking Up, Termoli, Over The Air, Green Country and Green Opal.
Articles:
'Owned by Mr N.H. Ferguson, In Full Flight was first seen in action in February 1971 at the Durban Turf Club when he won his maiden plate; during his juvenile season he won four out of his six starts. In his last appearance as a 2-year-old he had a spectacular victory leaving the rest of the field 9½ lengths behind as he passed the post.
As a 3-year-old, In Full Flight's remarkable record continued. He was beaten only once in 10 starts - when he ran third to Sentinel and Elevation in the South African Guineas at Greyville. Up to the time that he won the Rothman's July Handicap (1972) he had won over distances from 1000 metres to 1600 metres but had never competed over a distance further than 1600 metres. His wins included the Summerveld Free Handicap by 1½ lengths from Sentinel, a Sprint Handicap at Pietermaritzburg which he won by 4½ lengths, and the Bull Brand Jockeys' International. In the latter race, ridden by visiting jockey, F. Toro, he stormed away to win by 5½ lengths, with Elevation, Sentinel and Full Stretch in the placings.
In January 1972, starting at 2-5, he held off Sentinel to win the Swazi Spa 'Holiday Inn' Stakes run at Kenilworth over 1400 metres by a short head. On a cold and blustery day at the beginning of February these two protagonists once more fought out a finish (the Cape of Good Hope Guineas) to a thrilling dead-heat. He was partnered for his fifth win by jockey C.H. Hyde with whom he was to win the Concord and the Newbury Stakes. In the 112th Renewal of the Queen's Plate, ridden by Transvaal jockey Raymond Rhodes, In Full Flight again beat his rival - by 2½ lengths.
The pinnacle of his career was capturing the July by 1¼ lengths from King's Guard and Pedlar. Trained by David Payne (who at 24 was the youngest trainer ever to saddle the winner of the race) and ridden by 28-year-old Raymond Rhodes, this must have been the most youthful trio ever to win a Durban July.
"Young David" had been forced to give up riding when, as champion jockey of Natal, he began to have serious weight problems; his fortunate alliance with Mr Ferguson and the brillian In Full Flight started him on the road to success as a trainer. He was second on the leading Trainers' List during the 1971/72 season, hardly more than a year after he had begun training. The first horse he had in training was a filly, Early Bird that won her debut - accordingly, Payne named his stables after her.
Of the team only owner Mr Ferguson was an old-timer; he had won his first Durban July with Kipling in 1940 when it was rumoured that he won over £100,000 on the horse. Always a big punter he was also keenly interested in the horses themselves and their breeding. He had been variously a cattle and sheep auctioneer and was the founder of a hide and skin business in Durban. As a young jockey David Payne rode for him on a horse called Yeti and it was through this early association and the influence of Mr Ferguson's stepsons, Charles and Hilton Storm, that David Payne became his private trainer at the end of 1970.
In Full Flight, by New South Wales out of First Swallow (bred by Godfrey Gird at Maine Chance Farms), won three more races before his untimely death as a 4-year-old. These included the w.f.a. Woolavington Cup at Clairwood by 5½ lengths from Sentinel, William Penn and Force Ten, and a thrilling finish in the Champion Stakes won by a neck from William Penn with Mazarin a head behind.
His final victory was at Kenilworth in the Cape. Starting at 4-6 from the disastrous draw of No.15, but ably ridden by Raymond Rhodes, he strode to the front of the field to win the 1400 metre Somerset Plate by a length from William Penn who was a head in front of Force Ten. His last race was the 1973 Benson and Hedges Metropolitan Handicap in which he was defeated by the 14-1 outsider, Messrs D.E. Rogers and W.J. Engelbrecht's Gold Flame with Major M.J. Wyatt's Force Ten second. In Full Flight's death from a ruptured lung only a few days after the Met was a great loss to racing - had he lived he might have gone on to be one of the best horses ever bred in South Africa. He won 11 feature races, and stakes of R123,620 - without any doubt a bargain for Mr Ferguson who had bought him at the 1970 Yearling Sales for only R3,500.
In 1975 David Payne became Mr and Mrs L. Jaffee's Natal trainer and he has trained a number of winners for them one of which is the top-class sprinter, King's Rhapsody, winner of the Smirnoff Plate at Pietermaritzburg in 1977. During his 2-year-old season he won three times and was placed second twice in five starts. As a 3-year-old he won two events, was second on four occasions and third once.
His best year was as a 4-year-old. He started the season second to Sun Tonic in the Gary Player Knock Out Handicap, an A Division sprint over 1000 metres at Clairwood. In the Transvaal in December 1978 he won the Joseph Dorfman Memorial Handicap at Germiston. He proceeded to the Cape where he won the Merchant's Cup at Kenilworth in January 1979 and a month later ran third to Lovely Rhythm and Monastery in the Jack Stubbs Memorial Trophy over 1000 metres and the Newbury Chairman's Stakes over 1200 metres at Greyville. A most handsome big bay, he was bred at the Varsfontein Stud in the Cape by the champion South African sprinter Royal Affair out of Singing Winds.'
(Jean Jaffee, They Raced To Win, 1980, pg. 191)
