Star Harbour lost his maiden tag in impressive fashion in Navan today by winning the Royal County (Premier) Handicap Handicap for owners Phoenix Thoroughbreds. The winner was getting off the mark on his seventh attempt having lost a race in the stewards’ room at Dundalk back in February.
Having broken away quickly from the stalls, the recently gelded son of Sea The Stars made all under Chris Hayes to win by a commanding 3.25 lengths from the Michael Halford-trained Bear Story.
Ado stated afterwards, “We put blinkers on him in Sligo & he missed the break and got caught in behind. He wasn’t a cheap colt & he has a lot of ability but wasn’t giving us everything and we decided to geld him. I said I’d let him take his chance today even though we were a couple of pounds out of the handicap as he’d have a light weight on his back. The plan was to sit in a little behind the front 3 but Chris said he just jumped so well that he decided to let him stride on and he did it nicely in the end. He’ll be nice for the 12f handicap at Galway but we’ll have a look at the Ulster Derby in the interim. It’s nice to have a horse like him to look forward to.”
