There were seventeen stakes races Australia-wide on Saturday, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better ride than Willie Pike's on the favourite Starry Heights in the Listed XXXX Kalgoorlie Cup (23000m).
Back among the tailenders turning for home, Pike scythed between runners on the 5-year-old son of Star Turn to defeat the 7-year-old Galileo gelding Iowa by one and a quarter lengths, with the All Too Hard mare Red Cadillac two and a half lengths in third.
In completing the Boulder Cup - Kalgoorlie Cup double, the Grant and Alana Williams-trained gelding advances his record to nine wins and a second from 19 starts with earnings of $452,142.
"He could potentially be a Perth Cup horse," Alana Williams said.
"I'm rapt for (part-owner) Rodney Kemp. He really wanted to win this race because it was the one race that eluded him as a jockey."
Willie Pike said he had a plan to ride for luck.
"The way the track's playing and how hard it is to make ground, I did not want to try and loop them because I tried it on an odds-on pop earlier, and it blew up in my face," Pike said.
Purchased by his trainers for $35,000 from the Ruby Racing & Breeding draft at the 2021 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale, Starry Heights is the first foal and only runner for the unraced High Chaparral (IRE) mare Highly Illustrious, who hails from the family of Denise's Joy.
The third and final foal of Highly Illustrious is a 2-year-old colt by War Chant, a $5,000 purchase for John Chalmers Bloodstock (FBAA) at the 2023 Perth Winter Thoroughbred Sale.
Starry Heights rounded out a productive day for Vinery stallions after Ole Kirk made the best possible start to his stud career when King Kirk stormed to victory in the Group III Breeders' Plate at Randwick and fell just a length short of a historic double with O' Ole second in the Group III Gimcrack Stakes.
Exceedance looks to have a Group 1 winner-in-waiting after Swiftfalcon demolished the opposition in the Listed Dulcify Stakes.
