A star is born in the Cape

Unfortunately he failed narrowly, going down 0.30 lengths to Door Of Deception, an 8-1 chance from the powerful Justin Snaith yard.

This son of Ashaawes gets the opportunity to redeem himself when he steps out in Race 5 at Durbanville today to contest a MR 88 Handicap over 1000m.

The drop in distance should be in his favour as his first two wins were over that distance. However, this will be his first race around the turn and Durbanville is tight and undulating, not every horse’s cup of tea.

What Asstar does have in his favour is No 1 draw, always a massive advantage on this course. He will be ridden for the first time by Christopher Puller.

The youngster has to take on experienced older horses and the best of these could be six-year-old gelding Dressed In Cotton as Darryl Hodgson’s charge theoretically has the beating of Asstar.

They met on 12 July in a MR 88 Handicap over 1000m which Puller’s charge, who was still a juvenile, won by 3.60 lengths. Dressed In Cotton gave his younger opponent 8.5kg and this time just 2kg will separate the pair – a swing of 6kg.

Of that, 4.5kg is the result of penalty given to Asstar for his convincing victory, 0.5kg comes from the one-point merit rating drop sustained by Dressed In Cotton, and the remaining 1kg is the weight-for-age adjustment.

Asstar is improving with every run and as long as he handles the track, he should have made enough to improvement to beat Dressed In Cotton.