Bird Catcher, owned and trained by Fitzroy Glispie, entered the winner’s enclosure for the first time when she scored a fighting win in the running of the $800,000 Sunnyside Stakes at Caymanas Park on Sunday.

It was the filly’s fourth attempt and she made no mistakes to win the maiden special weight going over 1,100 metres.

Ridden by Wesley Henry, Bird Catcher (Burning Marque – Bye Bye Birdie) got a good break from the number three draw, but watched as her more fancied stable companionGlobal, under Paul Francis, assumed the lead and dictated the early fractions coming off the final bend.

After a brief tussle withGlobal in deep stretch, Bird Catcher flew away in the last half-furlong to win by one-and-a-half lengths from the nicely bred Global.

Poison Gas, with Richard Lunan in the saddle, who made a challenging move entering the straight, was another three lengths in third place ahead of a prominent Classy Aviator, the mount of Aaron Chatrie, in the 13-horse field for fillies only.

Bred by New Blue Limited, Bird Catcher covered the distance in an encouraging 1:07:0 minutes behind 23:0 and 46:2 seconds splits.

Glispie said that he was pleased with his charge’s effort but the victory surprised him.

“It was a good performance by Bird Catcher. She has been running some good races of late and I am happy that she came home today (Sunday),” Glispie said.

“The victory, however, surprised me as I was expecting my other runner Global to win the race. BothBird Catcher and Global are good horses and the plan was for them to get a clean break, and I knew once that happened the race was going to be decided between them. I figured that Global would lead the race and made all to win, but that wasn’t so, but I am happy for the one-two,” he further stated.

Henry was also happy with Bird Catcher’s performance.

“I got a good break, but I saw that the Global wanted the lead so I held her into second position coming around the final. Entering the lane when I asked her to run, she responded well and got home quite easily in the end. She is an improving filly that will go places,” Henry said.