Trainer Gillian Heinrich hopes to add Confident Star to her Magic Millions carnival team following the three-year-old’s slashing victory at Doomben.
Confident Star set a new class record leading all the way for a decisive 1-1/4 length win over Viking Heart in Wednesday’s www.brc.com.au Handicap (1200m).
The son of Danzero clocked 1min 09.67secs, which shaved 0.82s off the previous mark set in June by the John Thompson-trained Save Yourself.
Heinrich’s husband Hoss, who paid $150,000 for Confident Star at the Magic Millions yearling sale last year, is hopeful the gelding can earn enough prizemoney to qualify for the $1 million Magic Millions Guineas (1400m) at the Gold Coast on January 14.
The Heinrich stable, which won the Magic Millions Classic with Military Rose in 2010, plans to have a strong presence at the Gold Coast feature meeting in January.
Pure Whisper heads Heinrich’s Magic Millions Classic charge while stablemates Sunset Affair and Military Bride will attempt to qualify when they clash in the Coca Cola Amatil Handicap (1020m) at Doomben on Saturday.
“Confident Star goes really good but it’s taken him a long time to get here,” Heinrich said.
“He’s shown us promise all the way along but he’s been very green and went shin sore a couple of times.
“He’s a big boy who only had his first start on Melbourne Cup day when he ran third but I’m very happy with him now.”
Confident Star is a half-brother to the well performed South Australian Zodiac Queen who won six times from 24 starts.
Zodiac Queen won up to 1600 metres and was Group Three placed when runner-up to Moment In Time in the Auraria Stakes at Cheltenham in 2008.
Trainer Bryan Guy is likely to heed the advice of jockey Glen Colless and bypass the Magic Millions Guineas with Manzano despite the colt’s impressive 1-3/4 length win in the Hidden Dragon@Lyndhurst Class Three Plate (2060m) on Wednesday’s program.
Guy was in two minds over whether to freshen Manzano for the Magic Millions Guineas or put the son of Red Dazzler in the paddock to prepare for the Group One Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm next year.
“He’s still really a two-year-old and it’s amazing what he’s doing now as he doesn’t turn three until the end of the month,” Guy said.
“I’ve got plenty of options with him including the Magic Millions Guineas, or I could put him away for the Derby next year.
“I spoke to Glen and he said he’ll stay all day but if he was to run in the Magic Millions he’d be still on the corner when the others were passing the winning post.”
AAP TURF
