Joliestar was terrific in her first-up run since taking out last year’s Thousand Guineas saluting fresh in a brave performance to claim the million-dollar Arrowfield 3YO Sprint 2024.
2024 Arrowfield Sprint winner Joliestar was excellent resuming in the million-dollar Group 2 at Randwick. Photo: Steve Hart.
Chris Waller’s ultra-consistent daughter of Zoustar was outstanding in the Group 2 $1 million Arrowfield 3YO Sprint (1200m) holding on by a nose in a photo finish to continue her super record.
Yet to finish worse than second in her six career starts, she posted her third victory in the Randwick event on The Championships Day 2.
It was her first run since claiming a 1.5 length victory at Caulfield last November in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m).
Joliestar had undergone surgery in the interim to remove bone chips, but showed she was back to her best with the eye-catching return.
“It was very minor. We didn’t know it was there. It was precautionary x-rays that found it,” Waller said of the bone chips.
“She could have easily raced on but we got it out and she had a career to fulfill without any problems to worry about.”
Jockey Jamie Kah replaced the injured Jason Collett in the saddle and gave the eventual Arrowfield 3YO Sprint winning filly an ideal run up the middle the closing stages.
Joliestar ($5) sliced through the field making up ground from the back on the straight to hit the lead 100m out from the line and hold on in a thriller to deny the equally brave Capitalist gelding Hedged ($10) who was also good late.
In a close third completing the trifecta was the Annabel Neasham-trained Russian Revolution colt Libertad ($21) showing great improvement from his Group 3 Star Kingdom 13th a fortnight earlier.
“She’s a group one-winning horse but she had a long break and it is hard to gauge where they’re at just from trackwork,” winning trainer Waller told the media.
“Most horses, they’d already had first-up runs and we’re going into the race fresh with some boom horses and we just rode her comfortably where she was happy and Jamie cleverly found a way through the field.
“It was a really good win. She has probably gone to a new level racing quicker over shorter and beating the boys.”
2024 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint Results & Finishing Order
| Finish | No. | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Margin | Bar. | Weight | Penalty | Starting Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | JOLIESTAR | Chris Waller | Ms Jamie Kah | 6 | 54.5kg | $5 | |||
| 2 | 9 | HEDGED | Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr) | Damian Lane | 0.07L | 7 | 56.5kg | $10 | ||
| 3 | 3 | LIBERTAD | Annabel Neasham | Michael Dee | 1.4L | 5 | 56.5kg | $21 | ||
| 4 | 4 | CORNICHE | James Cummings | Tom Marquand | 1.52L | 11 | 56.5kg | $16 | ||
| 5 | 2 | ARKANSAW KID | Ben, Will & JD Hayes | Mark Zahra | 1.53L | 3 | 56.5kg | $6.50 | ||
| 6 | 6 | SCHWARZ | John O’Shea | James McDonald | 2.14L | 1 | 56.5kg | $5.50 | ||
| 7 | 1 | OZZMOSIS | Bjorn Baker | Ms Rachel King | 2.19L | 4 | 56.5kg | $3.80F | ||
| 8 | 5 | RED RESISTANCE | Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | Nash Rawiller | 4.11L | 12 | 56.5kg | $18 | ||
| 9 | 13 | MUMBAI MUSE | Michael Freedman | Tommy Berry | 4.13L | 2 | 54.5kg | $20 | ||
| 10 | 10 | THE INSTRUCTOR | Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | Adam Hyeronimus | 6.17L | 10 | 56.5kg | $71 | ||
| 11 | 8 | THE NOVELIST | Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | Tim Clark | 7.52L | 8 | 56.5kg | $21 | ||
| 12 | 7 | RAIKOKE | Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr) | Ben Melham | 8.5L | 9 | 56.5kg | $31 | ||
| 15 | BALLROOM BELLA | Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou | Zac Lloyd (a) | 0 | ||||||
| 14 | SALTAIRE | John O’Shea | Ms Jamie Kah | 0 | ||||||
| 12 | LEARNING TO FLY | Annabel Neasham | Chad Schofield | 0 |
Table Credit: Racing Australia.
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