Stellar Collision has appreciated the firm conditions at Caulfield to land Darren Weir a stakes race success.
His victory in the Listed Christmas Stakes on Tuesday was even more special for the champion trainer who also holds a major ownership share in the sprinter.
Specked from $31 to $26, Stellar Collision rode the speed under Dean Yendall to score a half-neck victory from Oak Door ($4.80) with last year’s winner Lucky Liberty ($6.50) a half-length away third.
Stellar Collision has now won seven of his 20 starts and taken his prize money to more than $320,000 with Tuesday’s win.
Now Weir would like to plan something bigger for the five-year-old.
“He’s got the ability to run in better races and although he’s won seven races from not a lot of starts he is a bit hit and miss,” Weir said.
“He might be a rough, lightweight sort of chance in a Goodwood in Adelaide.”
Stellar Collision was having his second run back from a spell and disappointed Weir with his first-up sixth over 1200m at Pakenham on December 9.
“We thought he’d run well at Pakenham but he ran poorly but there was a lot of horses in that race that ran poorly,” Weir said.
“Horses in that race stayed where they landed and nothing really changed.”
Weir explained Jarrod Mclean, who is in charge of his Warrnambool base, thought the gelding would improve on that Pakenham performance.
“Jarrod always spruiks his horses, so he’ll be happy,” Weir said.
“When he got to the front on the corner that was the old Stellar Collision and he fought on well.”
McLean had one of his own horses in the race, Tried And Tired ($26) who finished sixth under Ben Allen.
Yendall was confident during the run Stellar Collision would take beating.
He said getting on a firm track helped Stellar Collision after the gelding wasn’t suited on the shifty footing at Pakenham.
“He switched strides a couple of time on straightening and I was mindful it was going to be tough today,” Yendall said.
“I thought he went well at Pakenham despite the shifty track and the firmness here suited him ideally.”
