Five year old grey mare FINE MIST will possibly bring the curtain down on her career , when she contests a 1000m race at Morphetville Parks on Saturday.
FINE MIST has now gone almost eighteen months without a win, her last victory coming in October 2015 when she won at Warwick Farm. That victory was also over 1000m , and this appears to be her pet distance.
FINE MIST won four of her first seven starts before a throat operation forced her to have six months in the paddock at the end of her three year old campaign.
The mare was able to defeat the smart pair ONE MORE ZETA and SLOTS at Warwick Farm and ran a very credible 5th to NAYELI in The Nivison at Randwick , before running second to RELIGIFY , at Rosehill in October 2016.
Earlier this year it looked as though she might be back to something resembling her best , when she ran 2nd to the very smart MR MANHATTAN at Warwick Farm, however she was poor in two subsequent runs in town before being tipped out.
Further investigation found minor hoof issues, so after a long spell and constant treatment from the farrier, all appeared back on track when she ran fast time winning a Warwick Farm barrier trial in March this year.
The owners then made the decision to send her to South Australia , chasing black type success , given the pending call of the breeding barn.
This looked like being the right call when FINE MIST ran well first up at Morphetville , behind the smart KARLOVASI in the Listed Manihi Classic, before another poor performance in the 1100m Listed Oakbank Stakes over the Easter weekend.
Further review of her disappointing run at Oakbank attributed blame down to the state of the track, finding herself trapped on the inside of a deteriorating surface , against a severe track bias. But after such a long run of outs, you could argue the owners were simply looking for excuses.
FINE MIST therefore finds herself in a BM82 race this weekend, easily the weakest race she has contested in over three years. With local jockey Jason Holder in the saddle, and from a favourable inside draw with rail in the true position, it is hard to see why the bookmakers are putting up as much as $46.
If the curtain is to come down on her career after Saturday she can certainly hold her head up high as she has provided great thrills for her ownership group, many of whom were lucky enough to count FINE MIST , as their first foray into racing .
For any punter looking for a bit of value, they could do a lot worse than having a couple of dollars each way on the old grey mare this weekend.
