Star Patrol out to topple smart fillies in Champions Sprint
Dubai date on the agenda for son of Starspangledbanner who takes his chance in today’s Flemington feature
Rejuvenated straight track specialist Star Patrol (Starspangledbanner) is set to become the next Australian speedster to tackle Dubai’s lucrative Al Quoz Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m) after striving to topple a female giant – or two – in today’s Champions Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m).
A cracking 11-runner field will contest the $3 million feature on the last day of Flemington’s Cup-week carnival, with five-year-old gelding Star Patrol among the leading fancies out to defy the market’s suggested conundrum – that if Imperatriz doesn’t get you, In Secret will.
Te Akau mare Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) will likely be odds-on for her next step towards greatness, seeking a 13th win in her last 16 starts and to become the first horse in modern history to take the spring Group 1 sprint treble of the Moir (1000m) and Manikato Stakes (1200m), and the Flemington sprint.
Aside from that history, the Mark Walker-trained star will have to overcome doubts about her first look at straight racing. In contrast, the field’s other daughter of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Godolphin’s $4 second-favourite In Secret, has dominantly won both straight outings – and at Group 1 level over today’s trip – in last spring’s Coolmore Stud Stakes and the autumn’s Newmarket Handicap.
In a race that could at first glance pass as something of a mares’ benefit, Star Patrol ($15) will also have to get past last-start top shelf winners Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai, $13), Asfoora (Flying Artie, $13) and Espiona (Extreme Choice, $15) if he’s to secure a spring winning hat-trick, a fourth stakes success, and his first at Group 1 level.
But as much as he respects the mares, especially with their weight-for-age allowance, and especially Imperatriz, trainer Clinton McDonald believes the powerful Star Patrol has a lot in his favour.
For starters, he appears to have come back a different horse after late-autumn surgery on a loose palate which had been hindering his breathing, an operation performed in Melbourne by Tom Ahern, a Perth vet who’s renowned for the procedure.
And Star Patrol’s two post-op runs this campaign – victories over today’s course and distance in the Bobbie Lewis Quality (Gr 2, 1200m) and the set-weights Gilgai Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) under 59 kilograms – give him four wins and a second from six straight races. The blemish was his 13th in In Secret’s Newmarket in his last run before surgery.
“The operation has been a real success. The soft palate had become loose, and it was blocking his airway. But the procedure is like a nip-and-tuck to cut out a bit of skin and tighten it all up,” McDonald said of the Greenhaven Park-bred five-year-old, a $78,000 Inglis Classic purchase for senior owner Josiah Ma.
Star Patrol’s improved breathing, coupled with an action with which he strikes the ground with punishing force, made him beautifully suited to no-turns racing, the trainer believes.
“He’s an extravagant-going horse. We’ve all seen his action – it’s brute force; he throws them down and it’s all power, and I think that’s why the straight suits,” McDonald told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Not having to pull him around a bend, you’re able to point and shoot with him. You can keep him nice and level, with a good breathing pattern, and it’s a matter of pushing the button when you want to go.
“Since he’s had his operation, he’s got a lot more confidence in his breathing. The lungs seem to be opening up better, he’s got better intake, and he’s pulling up a lot better after his work. So it’s all coming together for him.”
McDonald said Star Patrol – who could lead or sit back from gate six today for regular rider Ben Melham – would be an ideal candidate for the Al Quoz Sprint up the straight 1200 metres on Dubai World Cup night in March. The race has been won by Australians Ortensia (Testa Rossa) in 2012 and Buffering (Mossman) in 2016 – both when staged over 1000 metres – while The Astrologist (Zoustar) was a narrow second in the AU$2.2 million event this year.
“We’re keen to get him to Dubai,” McDonald said. “We understand he’s probably just below the top echelon of sprinters here, which is fine, but up the straight in Dubai he’d be really suited. We saw The Astrologist get beaten a half head there this year, and it’s really big prize–money. We’ll get through tomorrow and speak to the owners, but I think that’s on the radar.”
First, Star Patrol has to get through Imperatriz, a quest more like an impossible dream this spring, especially judging by her last-start all-the-way three and a quarter length Manikato win.
Still, there is some history against the New Zealand five-year-old, aside from her lack of it up the straight. Buffering has come the closest in recent decades to achieving the Melbourne spring sprint treble. In 2013, he was a four-length second in the Moir behind Samaready (More Than Ready) before taking the Manikato and the Flemington sprint – an order that gives McDonald heart.
“When you’ve been racing in big races, sometimes they have to take their toll somewhere along the line,” he said.
“At the end of the day, there’s not a lot between these sprinters, and if one has an off day – they only have to dip about three or four per cent – over this distance it can have an effect.
“Imperatriz is a great mare. She’s got a high cruising speed, she can lead or sit off them, and she’ll be awfully hard to beat. But we saw Joe Pride’s horse [Think About It] have an off day last weekend. They can all have an off day.”
McDonald said Star Patrol had improved since his last start and would be “a chance” if he could replicate his personal best over this course – the 1:08.84 he set in blitzing a three-year-old handicap field by seven lengths last year.
The Cranbourne-based trainer is also encouraged by the fact last year’s Sprint Classic went to $20 shot Roch ’N’ Horse (Per Incanto), toppling odds-on favourite Nature Strip (Nicconi). Walker, however, had bad news for him.
“My gut feeling is, she’ll like the straight,” Walker told ANZ Bloodstock News of his $3.5 million prize-money winner, who’s scored at up to 1600 metres.
“She’s got such great acceleration, and it’s a tough 1200 [metres]. They tell me that coming down the chute it’s almost like a 1400 [metres], so that’ll suit her even better as well.
“We had a month between the Moir and the Manikato and we took her to Flemington and she had a gallop up the straight. That’s not raceday conditions of course, but she seemed to handle it OK.
“I’ve got great respect for the whole field, so I wouldn’t say she’s unbeatable. But everything’s gone well with her, and I couldn’t be happier.”
In Secret’s trainer James Cummings, while acknowledging the “monumental job” of beating Imperatriz, was bullish about his mare’s chances in what would be a “fascinating” race.
Unusually, In Secret hasn’t won in three starts this campaign, all at Randwick, but powered home for a one-length fourth in The Everest (1200m) when stepped up to her favoured distance, and at WFA.
“It will be great to get her back to Flemington,” Cummings told reporters this week. “I think she’s flying. I thought she was huge in The Everest and I think she should be set to perform very well again.”
Not to be overlooked, also, is Bella Nipotina – like In Secret bred by Longwood Thoroughbred Farm’s Michael Christian – and who was a stunning winner of last Saturday’s Giga Kick Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill.
The six-year-old took her earnings past $6 million by leaping out of the ground after being blocked for room until the last 50 metres, upsetting dual Everest placegetter Private Eye (Al Maher) and the $20 million race’s winner this year, Think About It (So You Think), on that “off day” of his cited by McDonald.
Co-trainer Ciaron Maher hopes Bella Nipotina can be stored up for a late burst by Craig Williams again when backing up today. She’ll jump from gate one on a day when – with the rail out eight metres – track manager Liam O’Keeffe expects straight race horses to use “the middle to the outside part of the course looking for fresh ground” at the end of busy Cup week.
“She’s in great order. I tried to think of a reason not to back her up, but she’s bright and well,” Maher, who trains in partnership with David Eustace, told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Last week was the perfect storm really. We know she’s got an electric turn of foot, you’ve just got to wait for it, so getting held up like she did was ideal.
“Hopefully she can get on the back of a couple of nice horses and get a drag into the race, and show that turn of foot very late. Imperatriz doesn’t seem to mind where she runs, but she’s drawn on the other side of the track to us. So yeah, it would have to be a decent steer by Craig.
“Imperatriz is obviously a very good horse and is in the zone, but then again, before last Saturday you wouldn’t have thought Bella could knock over the two that she did. And she’s had four placings up the straight, mostly in decent races.”
Asfoora is one-from-one up the straight, but while she’s been in sparkling form in three runs this campaign for two 1100-metre wins and a second – to Impetratiz in the 1000-metre Moir – her challenge will be lasting the 1200 metres for the first time.
The Noor Elaine Farm homebred has run twice over 1200 metres, for a third after leading in a Caulfield three-year-old fillies’ Group 3 last year, and a fourth in The Quokka (1200m) at Ascot in April when second until the last 50 metres.
“The 1200 metres has got to be a doubt,” said her trainer Henry Dwyer. “But she’s been to 1200 metres twice and has had to work early both times.
“Still, the old–timers say it’s a tough 1200 metres down the straight, but I don’t know. They probably went at a solid gallop back in the day but now they tend to sit up early and then spring home the last 600 [metres]. So I wouldn’t have said it’s an overly tough 1200 metres, which I’m hoping plays in our favour.”