STARTANTES GETS 'THE INVITATION' CALL-UP

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, October 13, 2021

The Robert Heathcote trained Startantes has received a much sought-after call-up to contest the inaugural running of The Invitation, a new race recently unveiled by Racing NSW carrying prize-money of $2 million.

The race, which is for fillies and mares, will be run over 1400m at Randwick on October 23, the same day as the Cox Plate, with the exclusive field being made up of twelve runners who all have to be invited by a panel specially convened by Racing NSW for that task.

After winning five of her first eight starts in Brisbane … including the last three in a row … the stable was bold enough to pay the late acceptance fees to set her up for a double date with Group 1 competition in both the Group 1 Golden Rose and the Group 1 Flight Stakes in Sydney.

That confidence at Startantes being able to hold her own at the elite level was certainly well founded as the daughter of Star Turn finished not far off the placings in the Golden Rose (behind the likes of In The Congo, Anamoe and Artorius) before franking that form with a sound third place finish in the Flight Stakes (behind Never Been Kissed and Hinged).

Those results put $74 000 into Startantes’ prize-money account, more than balancing out the late acceptance fees that were shelved out … but, far more valuable than that was the fact that those strong showings caught the attention of the Racing NSW selection panel for The Invitation with confirmation that she does now indeed hold an entry in the $2 million contest being received by Heathcote today.

Entry into The Invitation makes a welcome change of fortune for the Heathcote stable who, only recently, for the second year in a row, suffered the disappointment of having to pull Rothfire out of The Everest through injury.

More articles