Promising
High Chaparral (IRE) filly Youngstar brought a three race winning streak to the
Group I BRC Queensland Oaks on Saturday and despite a less than perfect surface
that saw the race delayed, she overcame a torrid run in transit to post a
thrilling nose win.
The Chris Waller trained filly put the writing on the wall when she won the
Group II BRC The Roses two weeks ago and she went right on with the job when
stretched out to 2200 metres.
Ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, she became awkwardly placed in a stop start affair,
but hit the line hard when it mattered to win by a nose over her stablemate
Another Dollar.
"It was a tough win because I made a decision to pop out and get on the
back of Aloisia and then I was left stranded without cover," McEvoy said.
"It was a case of sit and suffer. They came at me from the 700m when I
wanted to get going so I had to wait and suffer.
"She got bumped around the last part of the corner and it was a tough
effort to pick herself up and get going again.
"She's gone to a new level when she's gone out in trip so the sky's the
limit."
Youngstar is the third Queensland Oaks winner for Chris Waller in the past four
years joining Winx and Egg Tart.
"It was a bit like a bicycle race the way they were changing positions.
They were wheeling around and she's gone from a perfect spot one off the fence
then shunted three and four wide," Waller said.
"They took off very early and she needed all of her qualities to come back
on the line."
A $200,000 Inglis Premier purchase for Anton Koolman Bloodstock from the
Bowness Stud draft, Youngstar runs for a syndicate that also includes Arthur
and Charlotte Inglis.
She has already won four of seven starts earning over $478,000 and is just at
the start of what looks like a promising staying career with the Group I IBRC
Queensland Derby in two weeks time still a possibility.
Bred to be an Oaks winner, Youngstar was bred by John and Karen Sheather and is
a half-sister to stakes-placed Eleven Seconds and is the best of four winners
from Irish bred Danehill mare Starspangled (IRE), a sister to Group III winner
Downtown and daughter of Champion 3YO Filly User Friendly, a five-time Group I
winner.
Bowness Stud sold the current yearling from Starspangled, a filly by Adelaide
(IRE), for $80,000 at Inglis Easter to Anton Koolman Bloodstock.
Starspangled has a weanling colt by Dissident and was covered last spring by
High Chaparral's champion son Dundeel.
Youngstar is the 22nd Group I winner for the much missed classic sire High
Chaparral, who has been enjoying further success as a sire of sires through his
star son So You Think, who sired Heavenly Though to win the Group III BRC Grand
Prix earlier in the day at Doomben.