Fly Miss Helen owner pays tribute following death of potential star filly

Robert Tyrrell, owner of Fly Miss Helen, who sadly suffered a fatal injury in the Sweet Solera at Newmarket, on Sunday paid tribute to a filly he hoped could have made up into a Classic contender.

A daughter of Le Havre, Fly Miss Helen had made a big impression when winning on her debut at Newbury last month, and was sent off co-favourite for the Group 3 Sweet Solera on Saturday.

But the juvenile filly was pulled up mid-race by jockey Sean Levey, having suffered a fatal leg injury.

It was a bitter blow for Tyrrell, who first became involved in racing in the mid-1980s, and he said: "She had a lot of potential. It's very tragic and it always seems to happen to the best ones. We were really hopeful of winning yesterday and it wasn't to be. It's really upsetting and the worst thing that could have happened."

Miss Helen was the first filly Tyrrell had owned, and her name also carries a lot of significance, as she was named after World War II warplane P-51D Mustang 'Miss Helen' – the last original 352nd Fighter Group P-51 known to exist.

The 352nd Fighter Group was popularly known during WWII as 'The Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney', so named due to the distinctive blue nose and upper cowl the planes sported, and Miss Helen was involved in several combat missions.

Tyrrell, who now owns the plane, added: "I've had the aeroplane for four or five years, she was named after the girlfriend of the pilot and I thought if I ever had a filly I was going to call her Miss Helen. She's French-bred and the French [racing authority] objected to the name so we had to call her Fly Miss Helen.

Fly Miss Helen (right) could have been destined for great things

"If all went well at Newmarket I was planning to get the plane and horse together and it would have made for some really nice pictures. I thought after Newbury she'd make a Guineas horse and had backed her ante-post for it."

Fly Miss Helen was trained by Richard Hannon, and Tyrrell has had horses with the Hannon family for the last decade. He has also had runners with Mark Bradstock, Stan Moore, Ali Brewer and Ben Pauling.

Mr Tyrrell, who is also trained by Hannon, could provide a much-needed boost for his owner if running at Bath on Thursday.

Luck has not been on Mr Tyrrell’s side on more than one occasion, as Tyrrell said: “He’s been very unfortunate as he’s been beaten in several photo-finishes which has been frustrating.”

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