Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
On Wednesday at Randwick-Kensington, Megastar Heart followed up his impressive debut with a commanding victory in the 1400-metre Golden Mile at Darley H.
The colt, a son of Vinery Stud’s Star Turn, is under the tutelage of Warwick Farm horsewoman Annabel Neasham and was guided to victory by Tom Sherry.
After finishing second on debut at Kembla Grange over 1200 metres, Megastar Heart relished the step up in distance, comfortably defeating Mr Artemisia (The Autumn Sun) and Smashing Time (Brave Smash {Jpn}).
Neasham, present on track, told Sky Racing, “Megastar Heart is a lovely horse. He’s still very babyish as you can see by him wandering around in the straight. Megastar Heart has always shown a lot at home, and they ran a pretty good time at Kembla Grange, so we came here (Randwick-Kensington) pretty confident.
“I think he’ll get a mile as he’s a lovely, big, strong horse. He was an impressive purchase ($825,000) at the 2-year-old sales, but it looks like he’ll repay that, and he’s only going to get better as he gets older.”
Sherry echoed Neasham’s thoughts, “He’s a lovely animal, and was a bit raw and green on debut. He was the same today (Wednesday) but stuck to his guns and had plenty up his sleeve.”
Fairview born and bred
Megastar Heart was bred by Fairview Park’s Ian and Linda Duckworth. He is the second foal from their Foxwedge mare Commonwealth.
Offered by Yarraman Park Stud at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Commonwealth was purchased for $250,000 by Gai Waterhouse and Henderson Racing and Breeding. She won once over 1200 metres before retirement, and hails from the brilliant mare Mica’s Pride (Bite The Bullet {USA}), who won the G3 Research S. and is the dam of the outstanding Criterion (NZ) (Sebring), alongside Group 1-winning half-brother Comin’ Through (Fastnet Rock).
The colt was offered by Fairview Park at the 2023 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale where Solari Bloodstock paid $120,000. Linda Duckworth speaking to The Thoroughbred Report said, “Ian and I are not surprised by Megastar Heart’s effort today (Wednesday).
Megastar Heart as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
“My husband (Ian) and I bred him out of our mare Commonwealth; he is her second foal. He was a lovely foal and yearling. Always a big scopey horse but a nice horse and always very athletic and good to anything with.”
Speaking on the $120,000 price-tag, Duckworth said, “I was happy, but I thought he was worth every cent because he was such a nice horse. Then he went to New Zealand and brought a lot of money ($825,000).
“But we did well out of him. Because he was such a correct and athletic animal, I actually booked his dam back to Star Turn today!”
“But we did well out of him (Megastar Heart). Because he was such a correct and athletic animal, I actually booked his dam back to Star Turn today!” - Linda Duckworth
Vinery’s Star Turn is available for a fee of $27,500 (inc GST) this season. Commonwealth has a weanling filly by Widden Stud's Anders, she missed to Saxon Warrior (Jpn) last season but was served by the triple Group 1 winner Hitotshu in the spring.
Bright future
After Megastar Heart’s sale to Solari Bloodstock he was taken to New Zealand and presented by Kit Brooks’ KB Thoroughbreds at the 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale. The colt was purchased trainer Benno Yung and his daughter Samantha on behalf of the Hong Kong-based Pato Leung for NZ$825,000 after clocking a slick breeze-up time of 10.24s.
Megastar Heart | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Brooks told TTR AusNZ, “Megastar Heart was a lovely, big, easy colt when he came to me. He was very easy to deal with the whole way through the preparation.
“He always galloped nicely but was super quiet, so I could imagine it might have taken a bit for him to switch on. However, Annabel (Neasham) looks to have done a great job with him.”
