Melbourne, Vic (Jan 31st, 2010) - Star Witness burst into contention for the Blue Diamond Stakes when successful in the listed Talindert Stakes (1100m) at Flemington on Saturday.Trained by Dan O’Brien the youngster, a son of former star galloper Starcraft, upstaged a quality field of gallopers to win the feature juvenile race up the Flemington straight course in dazzling fashion.
   A $150,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase, Star Witness went into the race as one of the better chances following his impressive debut win at Moonee Valley in late November.  Although Star Witness didn’t win by a big margin it was the way he did it at Moonee Valley and coming off a short break Star Witness has really come ahead again.

    Speaking after the event, O’Brien’s representative Gerard Tesoriero, was suitably impressed with the performance and said connections were now looking forward to Victoria’s premier juvenile event.
     “He was pretty impressive today,” Tesoriero said. “He wanted to over race a bit.”
    “The key was that we told Nick (Hall) to slot him in behind a horse because once he sees daylight he just wants to go.”
   “He’s a jump and run horse pretty much,” he added. “He’s always shown those early signs.”
    “We don’t really push our two-year-olds but if they are showing those early signs, then why not.”
    “He’s showing all the good signs and he’s starting now to peak at this time of the year.”
Connections will now target the Group One Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) to be run at Caulfield on February 20th.
    “We’ll probably go straight into it. He’s got plenty of prizemoney under his belt now and he seems to run fresh.”
       Nicholas Hall said the youngster was still “very new” during the race but he liked the win.
     “He was far too strong and it doesn’t even look like he’s gone around,” he told TVN’s Bruce Clark moments after unsaddling.
   Star Witness raced clear over the concluding stages to beat Tricky Tricky (Danzero - Trick or Treating by Favorite Trick) by a widening length-and-a-half.
    Another neck back in third place was Willow Creek (Tale of the Cat - River Tribe by Umatilla).
    Star Witness is the first Australian stakes winner for his sire Starcraft, based at Arrowfield Stud, a son of Soviet Star, Starcraft won 11 races during an illustrious career at distances from 1400 to 2400 metres.
   His biggest successes included the AJC Australian Derby and Chipping Norton Stakes.
    Star Witness is the first named foal of Leone Chiara, a daughter of Lion Hunter who won seven races to 1100 metres, including the Group Three RN Irwin Stakes and listed WH Wylie Handicap - both run in Adelaide.
    Leone Chiara is a sister to two group winners - Ferocity and Chinchilla Rose.  Ferocity won the Group Two Ascot Vale Stakes before retiring to stand at Oaklands Stud in Queensland, while, Chinchilla Rose has four group wins and earnings of almost $600,000 to her credit.

Tags: Arrowfield Stud, Magic Millions
Permalink| Jan 31, 2010

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