10 Times A Star
Sat 09 Dec 2023
WINNER 109 OF 2023: STAR SHIELD, trained by David O'Meara and ridden by Danny Tudhope: The 'Win 2,000,000 With BetMGM's Golden Goals Handicap' over 1m at Newcastle.
Twice a course and distance winner, the market had him marked up as joint favourite. A slight fly-leap at the start, he was held up towards the rear, which is his usual running style. Starting to make headway from 3f out, he still had an awful lot to do coming into the final furlong. Ridden, he had to negotiaite a path but ran on strongly to take the lead inside the final 50 yards and kept on, to win by a head.
"Terrific finish - Star Shield has got there!" Watch the full race replay here: https://www.attheraces.com/racecard/Newcastle/08-December-2023/1545
Timeform rated it as a t82 performance, saying: "Rarely runs a bad race on all-weather and came out on top in a tight finish; raced off the pace, pushed along over 2f out, headway soon after, stayed on to lead close home; won't go up much in the weights for this and will continue to give a good account."
Danny said in his Sky Sports Racing interview: "I get on well with Star Shield and today they went quick, which helped him, as he has to come from off the pace. He dug deep at the finish to get up!"
See the full official photo gallery, here: https://www.grossick.co.uk/p/80532khg/C385718391/x2-star-shield
Syndicate manager Mike says: "Well done to his owners on his third win this year. They did go very quick on the front end which is the perfect set up for him and I thought that his chance was scuppered when he had to switch left into the centre but Star Shield is so game in that sort of race and his head carriage was great in the final furlong. He deserved that for his consistency this autumn. He's developing into an MPR legend now having won 10 times! A perfect horse to take us to a record prize money haul this year too...."