Shea Eden struggles to contain his excitement when he is asked about lightly-raced four-year-old Star Major.
The son of Starcraft steps out for the third start of his career at Bendigo on Wednesday and although Eden expects the distance of 1400m to be well short of his best, the Cranbourne-based trainer has decided to roll the dice.
"The plan was to trial him at Cranbourne on Monday and then run over a mile (1600m) but with the weather and the transfer of the trials to the synthetic we opted to bypass the trials and head straight to the races," Eden said.
"Unfortunately we haven’t really been able to get a run on with him, he’s had a few little setbacks in that he’s picked up a virus here and there and we’ve had to patient with him.
"He’s a really progressive staying-type of horse that I’ve got a lot of time for."
After winning by three-and-a-half lengths at Sale on debut, Star Major resumed from a spell at Geelong in October, where he hit the line impressively against the pattern of the day to finish third behind Good Therapy.
Nikita Beriman will partner Star Major on Wednesday from barrier 15 of a capacity 16-horse field.
Eden said he expected Star Major wouldn’t show his best until he got to 2000m.
"He’s going to get every bit of 2000m and potentially even 2400m," he said.
"He’s got a massive aerobic capacity and is really exciting.
"He’s going to be a better horse once we get him out over 2000m and beyond but I think he’s a bit of a freak to be honest."
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