A deteriorating track at Randwick on Saturday made the Group II ATC Furious Stakes (1200m) a survival of the fittest and Zoustar filly North Star Lass produced boundless courage to claim a narrow victory in the mud.
The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained filly showed she had come back from her winter spell well when third in the Group II ATC Silver Shadow Stakes and obviously took benefit from that outing.
She led for home on the fence for Tim Clark and when challenged in earnest by Willinga Beast, the daughter of Zoustar pulled out everything she had to score a head win with Group I winning filly She’s Extreme in third place some three lengths back.
North Star Lass has two wins from four starts with earnings just shy of $220,000 and was a $260,000 Magic Millions purchase for her trainers from the Rosemont Stud draft running for a big group of stable clients.
“She is a typical Waterhouse-Bott horse. She was bought inexpensively, works her way through the classes and gets towards Group 1 races. We see it time and time again with our horses,” said Gai Waterhouse.
"This filly is on the Flight Stakes path, that's where she is headed, she is such a good filly."
Winning rider Tim Clark is optimistic North Star Lass will be effective over longer trips.
“She's a really brave filly and once she gets to the 1400 and the mile, the other two races in the Princess Series, she will probably be even better suited,” he said.
Bred by Rosemont in partnership, North Star Lass comes from a good fillies family and is the second winner from Group III placed Snitzel mare Sheila’s Star, a half-sister to stakes-winner Jacqueline Rouge and daughter of Group III winner North East Sheila.
Group I winning mare Instant Celebrity features in the pedigree which has also worked previously with Zoustar to produce HK stakes-winner Healthy Happy.
Rosemont Stud sold the current two year-old from Sheila’s Star, a colt by Capitalist, for $460,000 at Magic Millions this year to Mick Price Racing & Breeding Pty Ltd.
She has a filly to follow from the first crop of Zoustar’s brilliant son Zousain and unfortunately missed last spring to Rosemont Stud’s young gun Hanseatic.
North Star Lass is the 32nd stakes-winner for Zoustar, who has now sired the winners of the first two legs of the Darley Princess Series with Zougotcha winning the Group II ATC Silver Shadow Stakes two weeks ago.
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