I Am A Star (NZ) Sparkles Again

$12,000 Karaka weanling purchase I Am A Star (NZ) (I Am Invincible) scored her ninth black-type win, and her third in a row, with another dominant display in Wednesday’s A$150,000 Group 3 Ted Baker Ladies’ Day Vase (1600m) at Caulfield.

The high-quality mare overcame an awkward wide gate in the fillies and mares’ feature, leading all the way and scoring a comfortable half-length victory. She was ridden by Ben Melham.

“Once the others were happy to let Ben dictate the race, she was always going to take a hell of a lot of running down,” trainer Shane Nichols said. “That was a dominant win. She won really well.”

I Am A Star had won the Group 2 Let’s Elope Stakes (1400m) and Group 2 Stocks Stakes (1600m) in her two previous starts.

“She’s thriving,” Nichols said. “She’s not hard to keep happy, and she just keeps doing the job.”

I Am A Star has now had 26 starts for 10 wins, two seconds and three thirds, earning more than A$1.54 million in prize-money – almost 140 times her purchase price at the 2014 National Weanling, Broodmare and Mixed Bloodstock Sale.

Her total tally of black-type wins now stands at nine, having previously won the Group 1 Myer Classic (1600m), Group 2 Kewney Stakes (1400m), Stocks Stakes (1600m) and Sunline Stakes (1600m), and the Group 3 Quezette Stakes (1100m) and National Stakes (1200m).