Graeme Collins, a compliance officer with Western Power, and his wife Pauline and their son Ben love the thrill of racing pacers --- and Graeme declared “it’s nice to get the monkey off my back” when he trained his first metro-class winner at Gloucester Park with Fly To The Finish scoring a smart all-the-way victory in the $21,000 Team Bond Pace over 2130m on Friday night.
This ended a losing sequence of 38 and it was the New Zealand-bred Fly To the Finish’s first win at his 28TH start in WA for the Collins family.
“We train and race pacers for fun, not to make money,” said the 64-year-old Collins. “We don’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars; we just enjoy our involvement in the sport.”
Fly To The Finish, the $1.80 favourite, was driven confidently by Deni Roberts, who sent the five-year-old straight to the front from the No. 5 barrier, and after a slow lead time of 38sec. and modest opening quarters of 30.7sec. and 30.6sec. he sprinted home with smart 400m sections of 28.7sec. and 28.8sec.
Fly To The Finish is bred in the purple. He is by champion sire Bettors Delight and is the eleventh foal out of Christian Cullen mare Tosti Girl, who won the group 1 New South Wales Oaks at Harold Park in February 2006 and was retired with earnings of $196,761 from seven wins and six placings from 19 starts.
Fly To The Finish’s full-brother Thefixer was a star, amassing $1,055,693 from 12 wins and 16 placings from 47 starts. He won the 2018 New Zealand Cup from Tiger Tara, and his seven Australian appearances included group 1 victories in the 2019 Ballarat Cup and the Allied Express Sprint at Menangle in February 2019 when he beat Tiger Tara by a head --- a month before he finished second to Spankem in the Miracle Mile.
Collins said he purchased Fly To The Finish after sending an email to New Zealand bloodstock agent Stuart Valentine. “He sent me a list of a few horses and said that this horse was in New South Wales and was within my price range,” said Collins.
“Fly To The Finish has paid for himself (with his 28 starts for the Collins family producing Friday night’s win, five seconds and one third for $42,687 in prizemoney).”
Collins now has had 402 starters as a trainer for 22 wins and 69 placings. He owned and prepared Forsure, a full-brother to champion pacer My Field Marshal who won a race at Wagin in 2024 and two at midweek meetings at Gloucester Park three years earlier.
Before that Graeme and Pauline Collins bred and owned the well-bred mare Danmelben, who was driven by Ben Collins at four of his five wins for trainer Radi Barber in 2007.
Half an hour after Fly To The Finish’s victory Roberts completed a double when she guided the Bob Mellsop-trained Swizzlestick to an easy all-the-way win in the 2130m Team Bond Pace.
After very slow early times of 38.2sec. (lead time) and 31.8sec. and 30.7sec. opening quarters Swizzlestick, the $2 favourite, covered the final 400m sections in 29.1sec. and 27.9sec. to beat Rockstar Quality ($7) by a length and a half, rating a pedestrian 1.59.2.
Swizzlestick’s win followed three unplaced efforts after resuming from a spell. “He is a little fat fella who needed those runs, and he will improve off tonight’s run,” said Mellsop.
“He won three in a row (at Bunbury, Pinjarra and Narrogin in May 2025) when I first got him, then he damaged a flexor tendon and was out of action for six months,” said Mellsop.
