Trainer John Sadler and owner Bon Ho looked to have unearthed a very smart 2-year-old, with Starry Legend (Zoustar) blitzing his rivals by 3.5l in a mid-week 2-year-old race at Sandown.
Sadler purchased Starry Legend for $500,000 from the Segenhoe Stud draft at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale on behalf of Ho and will be delighted with his selection after such a brilliant debut.
The colt, ridden by Michael Dee, jumped very well and sat on the tempo throughout the 1000 metre contest. The race was up for grabs at the 200 metre mark, when Starry Legend found another gear, accelerating away to defeat another debutant, the Robbie Griffiths and Mathew De Kock-trained De Long Star (Squamosa) by a big margin, with Square Cut (Kuroshio) another 1.75l back in third.
Sadler described the win as 'amazing', and now has some decisions to make as to where he aims the smart 2-year-old towards.
"He's delivered. We’ve liked him for a long time. He's only gone as far as 800 metres before today, and you just wonder. As happy as I am, it hasn’t surprised me that he's done that," Sadler said.
"It was amazing really. His gate speed was almost like the others had missed the start and you think to yourself 'I hope this horse isn't running to hard through the bridle'. But to see him give that kick inside the 200, showed that he wasn't and he looks to be a very promising horse."
The trainer said that while he always felt Starry Legend had plenty of ability, he needed the time to develop into his 2-year-old campaign and that meant races like the G1 Blue Diamond S. came up too soon.
"He had a few little issues early on, nothing major but that slowed him up. He was a preparation behind being ready for a Blue Diamond. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here," Sadler said.
"He had a few little issues early on, nothing major but that slowed him up. He was a preparation behind being ready for a Blue Diamond." - John Sadler
"There's a really good race he is eligible for at Bendigo, a $250,000 race, but I'll speak to Bon Ho about where we go with him, but off the top of my head that'd be the race and then he'd have a break for a while."
Dee had ridden a lot of trackwork on the colt and wasn't surprised by how well he handled his debut.
"He's pretty smart that's for sure. I have done pretty much all his work apart from his last jump-out, and he's done everything right and blown everything away. I was always very confident coming here today," he said.
"Just the way he was able to let down today without anything to follow, there's plenty of things to like but he certainly was strong.
"He's going to learn a lot out of today's effort and go on with it."
Starry Legend as a yearling
Bred by Phil Wilton of Fremantle, Starry Legend is the fourth winner from Reset mare Savsenga. The pedigree page is highlighted by his third dam, Intrepidity (GB) (Sadler's Wells {USA}), who won the 1993 Epsom Oaks, one of her three Group 1 wins for trainer André Fabre.
Savsenga had a colt by All Too Hard last spring and then visited Magna Grecia (Ire).
