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Improvement to come from Waller-trained son of Widden Stud's Zoustar
Chris Waller has taken out the final two-year-old race of the season with Starman (Zoustar) winning the Vinery Stud Handicap (1100m) at Kensington on Wednesday on debut having trialled well twice prior to his first start.
The son of Widden Stud's Zoustar (Northern Meteor) showed a tremendous turn of foot down the centre of the track to win by 1.2 lengths.
Starman was bought for $500,000 from the draft of Bowness Stud at last year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by Tom Magnier and Waller stable representative Damien Fitton said the colt just needed time to mature before today's performance.
"He was an expensive colt the Coolmore syndicate purchased," he said.
"We're very privileged to have them in the stable, they've got a lot of nice young two-year-olds and it was nice to see him do that today.
"He just needed a bit of time to mature.
"He's probably taken a bit more time than usual, like most of the Zoustar's do.
"But he's strung together a few nice trials and today was D-Day for him and he got the job done.
"He'll train on enormously from today. He looked a little woolly in the coat, so he's got a lot of improvement to come."
Starman settled toward the rear of the field after jumping from barrier six with James Mcdonald in the saddle.
He was able to get the son of Zoustar to the running rail and track the field into the home straight. McDonald then moved the colt into clear air with 250 metres to run, exploding down the middle of the track to pull away and win comfortably.
McDonald, who had trialled the colt in preparation for today's race, said the Waller team have always had an opinion of Starman.
"Obviously he's been held back and astutely placed, so he was here to perform very well," he said.
"He got the firm track that he needs, and he showed brilliant acceleration. (He's a) Lovely Horse.
"To be fair to the staff at Waller's, they've always liked him.
"Dan, who rides most of the babies, he labelled him a pretty good horse right from early days.
"He's just taken a bit of time to come to hand, but they'll be reaping the rewards for sure now."
