A 40,000 guinea purchase from the Tattersalls Foal Sale in 2014 for De Burgh Equine/ James Harron Bloodstock, Star Empire is trained by Wesley Ward.
He showed brilliant speed from the gates to race up and share the lead before dashing clear on turning for home.
Star Empire powered to the line to win the $100,000 five furlong juvenile maiden
on the dirt by six and a half lengths. Watch
the race here.
"Obviously the late Edmund Bateman raced Foxwedge with
his wife Belinda, and was keen to give him every chance in the Northern
Hemisphere," explained James Harron.
"As part of that mission and working closely with Hubie de Burgh we
secured three Foxwedge colts as foals at Tattersalls in 2014 for the Bateman
family and sent them to Wesley Ward, with the pipe dream that one of them might
make it to Royal Ascot, where Wesley obviously has such a strong record.
" As
such it is very pleasing to see Star Empire make such a promising start to his
career, and a trip to Royal Ascot will now be under strong consideration
providing he comes through the run well."
Star Empire is the third winner for Celestial Empire, an unraced US bred Empire Maker mare from the family of Group I winners Golden Ticket, Well Chosen and Telling.
A Group I winning son of Fastnet Rock, the Newgate Farm based Foxwedge has sired seven winners in total, three in Australia, two in New Zealand and now one each in the UK and the US.
Foxwedge stands at a fee of $22,000 this spring.
