THOROUGHBRED

The rains came and local horse OUR STAR PUPIL took out the Group 2 Windsor Park Japan Trophy at Tauranga on Saturday.

He jumped and settled a clear last early, he went forward around the field from the 800 meter mark and was in touch with the leaders turning for home, from there he left them to it powering home down the outside fence to score by 3 1/4 lengths, AGAMEMNON was second with IRISH OPERA a further 3 1/2 lengths away in third.

It was a great day for the local owners.

The 7 year old gelding by PUPIL - STAR VADER is trained by Jim Pender and was ridden by Tasha Collett. The 1600 meters was run in 1.42.65 on a Heavy track. It was Jim's 4th success winning the Japan Trophy, CASABELLA LANE won for him last year with OUR STAR PUPIL running 4th, funnily enough the positions were reversed this year with CASABELLA LANE running 4th.

Jim Pender, " His work has been excellent this week. It was a good run last year and a good first up run so I was pleased with him, Kelly has been riding both of them work and he was pleased with both horses. It's my fourth one now, it seems to be a lucky race for me. Tasha knows him well, she rides him good, I said start to improve at the 800 and be in the first four turning for home and that's what happened."

Tasha Collett, " It was really good, I was quite confident actually going into the race, with the weight he had on his back, the course and distance record and on this sort of track it just suited him down to a treat, it was great."