Emotional Neindorf celebrates first Group 1 onboard Climbing Star
Young jockey Lachie Neindorf was last after the jump, then took the inside line eschewed by all others at Morphettville on Saturday as the already long odds steadily built higher against him in pursuit of his first Group 1 victory.
But when the leaders hit the line in the $1 million Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), it was 22-year-old Neindorf and Qatar Racing’s Climbing Star (Zoustar) in front, bringing not only a first top-tier winner for her rider, but an eighth for her sire, and his nation-leading fourth this season.
Jumping from the outside gate of 14, Climbing Star dawdled out of the barriers to ruin the desire of Neindorf and trainer Phillip Stokes for a forward role, on a day strong for on-pace runners.
Instead, Neindorf hooked the four-year-old to last place, a position raising the other unfancied prospect of heading to the inside in the straight, which had been avoided like lava mixed with quicksand by most jockeys all day despite the official good 4 rating.
By race eight, however, that strip of turf mightn’t have been as bleak as it had seemed. Indeed, it transpired to be a place to make hay for Climbing Star, who blew to $26 despite her past two Morphettville runs – her stakes breakthrough in the Matrice Stakes (Listed, 1200m) before a long neck second in the R N Irwin Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) to Benedetta (Hellbent).
And while the two favourites and daughters of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) – Estriella ($2.80) and I Am Me ($5) – jousted for the lead in the coveted centre of the straight, and Benedetta ($9) dared to come up their inside, it was the only horse to that mare’s left, Climbing Star, who calmly took the lead.
Though eventually drifting from two off the fence to some five or six, her short way home left her a half-neck clear on the line from the flying finish of the second-last horse in running Learning To Fly (Justify, $10), who’d had the second-widest barrier and was the outside runner on the turn. Benedetta finished millimetres away in third, with I Am Me and Estriella next in.
Bred by Qatar Bloodstock, and raced in their colours after a $600,000 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale purchase by Stokes and Rick Connolly Bloodstock, Climbing Star was brought back to scale by a tearful Neindorf to rapturous applause from his hometown crowd, before he steadied for his post-race interview.
“I’m trying to keep it together. It was a really good win,” he said. “She stumbled at the start, and I wanted to be a lot closer. From that point on, I thought, ‘Bugger this, I’ve blown the start. Let’s go back to the inside and try to ride a race’.
“That’s what we did, we got the favours and here we are. A lot was going through my head.
“I thought, ‘What would I do if it was a benchmark race’? You just cut your losses, go back to the inside and if you run home into a place with even luck, that’s good.
“It’s just special.”
Stokes, who won the Sangster in 2021 with Instant Celebrity (Not A Single Doubt) before her second in The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m), said it was “great for Lachie to get the win”.
“I was watching the race and I thought, ‘What happened? He was meant to get her to the outside’. No horse has been in there all day, so it’s probably evened out,” he said.
“She [Climbing Star] has come of age in this campaign. She’s just starting to blossom now. I still don’t think we’ve seen the best of her. She’s got a great spring ahead of her.”
Stokes kept alive the prospect of Climbing Star progressing to The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) in a fortnight.
“We’d have to be happy with her to do that, but if she pulls up well, we’ll look at it,” he said.
Climbing Star made it a quartet of Australian top-tier victors for Widden flagbearer Zoustar (Northern Meteor) this season, joining Zougotcha (two), Joliestar and Ozzmosis. Two sires shares second rank with two in Dundeel (High Chaparral), through Militarize and Celestial Legend, and Savabeel (Zabeel), via Atishu and Orchestral.
Zoustar also rang up a dual stakes day at Morphettville, with Growing Empire taking the SAJC Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
Widden’s flagbearer sits a distant second to I Am Invincible on the general sires’ table by earnings, but is a runaway leader by winners, starting yesterday with 173 to I Am Invincible’s 147, and shares top rank with him by stakes-winners (14).
Foaled in New Zealand, Climbing Star is a half-sister to dual Group 3 winner Sansom (Charm Spirit) and is the fourth winner from Bryony (Fastnet Rock), a sister to Group 1 victor Heroic Valour and three-quarter sister to Doncaster Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) hero Triple Honour (Honours List).
Without a live foal in 2021 and 2022, Bryony had another filly by Zoustar last year and is back in foal to him again.