It's hard to find words that can do justice to how far Hawke's Bay's Telegraph Handicap heroine, Irish Fling, has come in such a short space of time.
From lowly midweek Taupo race meetings in the spring, the Darci Brahma mare has soared to the top echelon of New Zealand racing. On Saturday she joined the Telegraph Handicap honour roll. But where words fall short, statistics can paint a clearer picture. So let's look back at Telegraph winners since 2006, and how their career records looked at the start of their Telegraph-winning season.
2006 Telegraph winner Gee I Jane had won four of her 13 starts, banked over $164,000 in stakes, and had a rating of 102.
Darci Brahma was already a multiple Group 1 winner at the start of the 2006-07 season. He had won eight of his 14 starts and over $939,000 in prize money, and his rating was 103.
Superstar Seachange - who delivered so many unforgettable performances at the Hastings spring carnival during her wonderful career - had a record of 16 starts for nine wins at the start of the 2007-08 season. She'd won $877,000, and her rating was 109.