The writing was on the wall.
Gold Star showed in his debut on Dec 2 that an early victory was imminent. He rushed home to finish third behind the promising My Dreamliner in a Restricted Maiden Polytrack 1,000m race.
With improvement and the extra 200m on turf, the Gold Stable-owned three-year-old Australian-bred came in for strong support and duly obliged in Race 2 last night in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden event over 1,200m.
The manner he scored from his wide barrier suggested more wins will come for this progressive youngster trained by Cliff Brown.
The bay gelding jumped just averagely, somewhere in the middle bunch.
But jockey Michael Rodd relaxed the $11 favourite nicely - albeit a bit wide - as Lady Boss led. Gamely then went up to eyeball the leader, Diamond King came across from his wide berth to swing around beautifully.
Gamely was first for home. Diamond King loomed up menacingly. Lady Boss said sayonara. Rodd angled out to give Gold Star a clear run. Once he saw daylight, Gold Star lengthened strides beautifully. He levelled up with the leader 200m out and then cruised away to win by 11/2 lengths. It looked like if you run the race again, Gold Star would greet the judge again.
A top run by the runner-up, outsider Runminderbinderrun, who paid a thumping $73 for a place. The Stephen-Gray-trained runner is certainly one for the notebook.
Brown said Gold Star ran impressively on debut and the 1,200m on turf suited his charge.
"Yeah, look, he did. He was very good that day, probably the 1,200m turf suits him," he said.
"You know, probably the further they go, the better he will go. He's a little progressive. We'll wait and see but it was good.
"I think 1,400m and a mile eventually. But we'll take it quiet and see where we end up."
Rodd thought his hopes were dashed, being trapped a little wide, after jumping from barrier 10 in the field of 14 but Gold Star's class saw him through.
"He did not have the best of runs. He was wide, but he also missed the early scrimmage," said the Australian jockey.
"On the A course, where he was three deep the whole way, he would normally be in trouble, but he's a fit horse and he's got class."
Rodd admitted he gave Gold Star a "terrible ride" first-up - travelling too far back and gave his mount too much to do over the flying 1,000m.
He said the grass track yesterday was in the best state he'd ever ridden on since he has been here.
RACE 1
1st 1 Larry Jack ($30-$9) 2nd 5 Jadeed ($15) 3rd 3 Exaltation ($16) 4th 12 Gravitation Forecast $59 Place Forecast (1-5) $25, (1-3) $28, (3-5) $24 Tierce $1,646 Trio $377 Quartet No winner ($322 carried forward) Scratchings: 8 Chapel Cleeve, 9 King Carlos
RACE 2
1st 1 Malinda ($12-$6) 2nd 11 Hidden Power ($16) 3rd 6 Angkor ($7) 4th 7 Arctic Siren Forecast $28 Place Forecast (1-11) $12, (1-6) $5, (6-11) $13 Tierce $224 Trio $31 Quartet No winner ($714 carried forward)
RACE 3
1st 2 Abbeleigh ($27-$9) 2nd 6 Jaleika ($6) 3rd 9 Wait A Sec ($75) 4th 5 Aquilina Forecast $17 Place Forecast (2-6) $6, (2-9) $56, (6-9) $36 Tierce $5,763 Trio $366 Quartet No winner ($1,806 carried forward)
RACE 4
1st 6 Lloyd George ($10-$7) 2nd 8 Tom 'N Jerry ($24) 3rd 1 Humble Addict ($10) 4th 5 Wildcat Forecast $64 Place Forecast (6-8) $18, (1-6) $9, (1-8) $45 Tierce $462 Trio $115 Quartet $4,507
RACE 5
1st 7 Viva Le Bleu ($40-$11) 2nd 3 Bring Me More ($8) 3rd 10 Kirinia ($42) 4th 4 Beautiful Beat Forecast $49 Place Forecast (3-7) $15, (7-10) $92, (3-10) $92 Tierce $2,040 Trio $702 Quartet $961 Scratching: 6 Fifth Of May
RACE 6
1st 1 Klever Kathy ($30-$9) 2nd 2 Madame Speaker ($5.10) 3rd 7 Flame Of Fire ($10) 4th 4 Vertical Forecast $5 Place Forecast (1-2) $3, (1-7) $9, (2-7) $4 Tierce $146 Trio $20 Quartet $976
RACE 7
1st 5 Aldo ($18-$7) 2nd 2 Pacific Spirit ($6) 3rd 6 Amazon King ($9) 4th 7 Lord Windermere Forecast $13 Place Forecast (2-5) $6, (5-6) $9, (2-6) $5 Tierce $68 Trio $15 Quartet $100
