Tosen Stardom’s Doncaster Mile                                                                         ……… by Bernard Kenny

It’s pay day; click open your Crown Bet account, and with the ultimate confidence place $100 on the nose of former Japanese top-liner Tosen Stardom to win The Star Doncaster Mile at Royal Randwick.

Yes Tosen Stardom is horse 4, carrying 56kg, drawing the extreme outside 23 barrier and to be ridden by Craig Williams. Do not be baulked by his $18 quoted starting price.

The $3m Gr1 The Star Doncaster Mile of 1600m is the main event of Day 1 of The Championships on Saturday 1 April and is run with fellow Group 1 events the Darley TJ Smith Stakes, BMW Australian Derby, Inglis Sires and the Coolmore Legacy Stakes.

Tosen Stardom is coming off a second placing in the Blamey Stakes and previously a nose second in the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield. He is looking for The Doncaster Mile to be sixth career victory and lift his total earnings to over $3.4 million.

In Japan Tosen Stardom was trained by Yasutoshi Ikee at Kyoto winning both his two 2yo races including the Kyoto Nisai Stakes, before going on as an early 3yo to claim the Kisaragi Sho. As a late season 3yo he won the Challenge Cup at Kyoto.

Tosen Stardom travelled to Sydney for The Championships as a 4yo and ran a credible 1¼ length’s second to Contributor in the Ranvet Stakes, before finishing fifth in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes to Criterion at The Championships.

Returning to Japan Tosen Stardom won the Cassiopeia Stakes when connections decided on a second attempt at the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Unfortunately on the eve of The Championships Tosen Stardom bled in training, incurred an automatic 3 month ban.

Tosen Stardom was kept in Australia and a sizable ownership share was syndicated by Australian Bloodstock. Now trained by Darren Weir in Victoria, Tosen Stardom returned to racing with a good fourth in the Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes before suffering an infected leg injury.

Tosen Stardom is royalty bred being by Japan’s Horse of The Year and Champion Sire Deep Impact, by Sunday Silence, winner of the Japan Cup and sire of Gentildonna, the Japanese Horse of The Year in 2012 and twice winner of the Japan Cup.

Admire Kirameki, the winning dam of Tosen Stardom by End Sweep, is also the dam of stakes placed winner Neo Stardom. She is from a stakes winning family directly related to Group 1 winner Tosen Jordan, Group 2 winner and sire Tosen Homareboshi and three stakes placed winners.

So You Think is ready to sire his initial Australian Derby winner with the Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes trained Inference contesting a top-class BMW Australian Derby over 2400m. Inference is coming off a gallant second to NZ Derby winner Gingernuts in the Rosehill Guineas having won the Randwick Guineas, and in the spring finishing third in the Victoria Derby.

So You Think was Champion 3YO and Older Miler in Australia winning the WS Cox Plate twice and the LKS Mackinnon Stakes. In Europe he won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Tallersalls Gold Cup twice.

Already stamping his first 3yo’s as classic contenders, So You Think, by the duel Derby winner High Chaparral, and is also the sire of NZ 1000 Guineas winner La Belle Diosa, Nothhwest Passage the Tasmanian Derby and Gold Rush winner of the Matamata Breeders’ Stakes.

Bred by his owners, Inference is the first foal of the Redoubt’s Choice mare Pontiana who was purchased by Team Hawkes for $215,000 at the Australian Easter Yearling Sale and was raced by the same owners.

Pontiana is a stakes placed Rosehill winner and is a full-sister to the stakes winner Grand Jardin and the Group 2 placed winner Liberty’s Choice, form the Morphettville Guineas winner Liberty Rose, sired by Royal Academy.