Former Irish and Hong Kong galloper Meaningful Star put his first local win on the board, at just his second New Zealand start, when he downed a classy line-up in the TAB 1600 (1600m) at Ellerslie.
Born in Ireland where he raced seven times for a pair of victories at the Curragh, the now eight-year-old son of Pivotal was sent to Hong Kong in 2021 where he won on another four occasions before being transferred to New Zealand in January by his Hong Kong owners.
Meaningful Star entered the stable of Byerley Park trainers Bruce Wallace and Grant Cooksley where he made an unlucky but impressive debut over 1400m at Ellerslie, finishing fourth after racing three-wide throughout.
Punters took note of that performance as they sent him out a $6.60 second favourite on the tote behind race favourite Habana ($5.60) on Saturday and he didn’t let them down, courtesy of a superb ride from visiting Australian jockey, Matt Cartwright.
Cartwright had him situated nicely one off the fence in midfield before seeking a run between horses early in the home straight. Despite being held up for a stride or two at the 250m, Meaningful Star burst through and set out after Habana, who had taken the lead out wide at that point.
Meaningful collared Habana with 75m to run and went to the post strongly to take the win from Habana and the late finishing Cognito who shaded stablemate Stonybreck for third.
Cooksley had felt his charge had made the necessary improvement from his first run to be a serious contender second-up and that judgement was spot on the mark.
“It was a good run first up and I felt he had improved leading into today,” Cooksley said.
“He won really well and I thought it was a lovely ride as he had him the right place at the right time and didn’t hesitate to take a narrow gap in the straight.
“He pulled up well and you wouldn’t know he has even gone around which is pleasing to see.
“We’ll keep an eye on him over the next couple of days and look at a plan to tackle some of those good 2000m races up here around Christmas time.”
Raced by a group that includes both Wallace and Cooklsey, Meaningful Star has taken his career record to seven wins from 32 starts and more than $1.6million in stakes earnings.