STARTANTES WINS FINAL GROUP ONE OF SEASON

Rob Heathcote won his first Group One contest since Rothfire won the JJ Atkins in 2022, when Starantes burst through the field to win the Tatts Tiara at Eagle Farm and round off a brilliant winter carnival.

Heathcote may be known for his hulking sprinters in the form of seven-time Group 1 winner Buffering and Rothfire, but Startantes is cut from a different cloth and comes from a family close to the Eagle Farm trainer’s heart.

It’s been a long journey for Heathcote who started out on the road to success with connections back in 1990 with Cantantes.

“I am so happy for the ownership group, we had the mum, Funtantes, I had her mum Cantantes, the family has been part of my life for 23 or 24 years and this ownership group has been with me the whole way,” an emotional Heathcote said.

“It meant a lot to me because I have had this family all the way through, we bred her.”

After going within a whisker of winning the Group 1 Surround Stakes in Sydney during the autumn, Heathcote set Startantes for a bumper winter carnival, where she put a flashing light above her name when storming home for fifth in the Stradbroke Handicap a fortnight earlier.

“We have known she is special for a long way through,” Heathcote said.

“We made a big call taking Taylor (Marshall) off and putting Jason (Collett) on, but they were last on the turn, he kept his cool and ran right through them.

“I just saw the head on footage, they opened like Moses parted the seas.”

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