Super-talented Per Incanto gelding Jimmysstar kicked off his new preparation with a brilliant first-up performance in Saturday’s A$150,000 Tour d’Horse Sprint (1100m) at Caulfield.
The winner of two of his three starts in New Zealand for Hastings trainer Guy Lowry, a majority share in Jimmysstar was sold to clients of Ciaron Maher in September of last year. He started his Australian career on a perfect note with victories in all of his first three starts, including a Benchmark 84 handicap at Caulfield and the A$175,000 Shooting Stars (1500m) at Cranbourne.
The chestnut spent the rest of the season in black-type company and finished second in the Listed Elms Handicap (1400m) seventh in the Gr.3 Newcastle Stakes (1400m), third in the Listed Brisbane Mile (1600m) and seventh in the Listed Luskin Star Stakes (1300m), often without much luck in the running.
Maher sent Jimmysstar out for a spell after that last-start Luskin Star Stakes run in May, and his return to racing at Caulfield on Saturday was a very different story.
The five-year-old was patiently ridden by Blake Shinn and charged home from third-last, catching Ashford Street right on the finish line and winning by a nose.
“It was an exciting run by the horse,” Shinn said. “He was always going to settle back, but we were a long way from them. He wasn’t really travelling that well because of the fast tempo of the race, but I had to bide our time and try and get him as comfortable as he can be. This is a distance probably short of his best, but his class shone through. He really savaged the line. Ciaron trusted the horse that he could sprint well at this distance and all the credit goes to him and his team.
“His attitude pre-race tells me that he’s certainly a more mature horse now. He’s always promised that he could measure up to some better-class races. It probably just happened a little bit too soon for him last prep. But this is a great start to his campaign and I can only see him going forward from here.”
Jimmysstar has now had 11 starts for six wins and three placings, earning more than A$389,000 for an ownership syndicate headed by Ozzie Kheir but still including his breeders Little Avondale Stud and Pete and Christine Algie.
“Jimmy, he’s great for Ozzie and the team,” Maher said. “He’s furnished and he always works like a sharp horse. I know he can get out over a trip, but he's certainly furnished mentally and physically, and what a way to start back. I told Blake I thought he could win in the last 20, and I meant metres, not centimetres.
“He can progress through the grades again. He's always shown that sort of X-factor ability. He's a cool little horse.”
Jimmysstar is by Little Avondale’s headline stallion Per Incanto out of Anniesstar. The Zed mare won five races including the Listed Feilding Gold Cup (2100m), while her full-brother Jacksstar was a seven-time winner up to Group Two level and also placed in the Gr.1 Auckland Cup (3200m). Half-brother Bourbonaire placed in the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m).
Anniesstar is the dam of three named foals, and all of them have been winners. Charms Star is a two-time winner headed by the Gr.3 Manawatu Breeders’ Stakes (2000m), and she was also runner-up in the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) and Queensland Oaks (2200m) as a three-year-old. Golden Cup has been a three-time winner in Malaysia.