$12,000 Purchase Scores Prestigious Thousand Guineas Placing

I Am A Star (NZ) (I Am Invincible) cost just $12,000 as a weanling at Karaka, but her value soared massively when she ran a close second in the prestigious A$500,000 Group 1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on Saturday, earning a tidy A$90,000 share of the purse.

This year’s running of the fillies’ classic attracted a field stacked with form and big reputations, but with Steven King in the saddle, I Am A Star produced a potent finish in the straight and dashed to the lead in the straight. She gave her all right to the finish line, and in the end she beat everyone but Global Glamour (Star Witness), the much-hyped Sydney filly who had won the Group 1 Flight Stakes at Randwick a week earlier for trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.

“She left nothing on the track and gave me everything she possibly had,” King said after dismounting. “That’s all I can ask from her.”

A daughter of the Dixieland Band mare Star Band, I Am A Star has now had seven starts for three wins and a placing for trainer Shane Nichols. She has earned in excess of A$315,000 in stakes.

I Am A Star was bred by Eales Racing, and she was offered by Rich Hill Stud at the 2014 National Weanling, Broodmare & Mixed Bloodstock Sale. She was purchased by Llanhennock Trust for $12,000.