Pakistan Star (Ger) (Shamardal) made headlines and lit up social media on Friday when coming from a long last to win his career debut at Sha Tin for owner Din Kerm and trainer Tony Cruz. The 3-year-old gelding was away slowly in the 1200-metre contest for Griffins, and swiftly dropped back to upwards of 20 lengths off the lead in the field of 14 while under a vigorous ride by jockey Matthew Chadwick. The bay at last began to build momentum as the field swung into the straight; however, he was still last approaching the 300 metre mark. Switching out to the middle of the track, Pakistan Star unleashed a blinding turn of foot to sweep past the entire field and win under wraps by 1 3/4 lengths in a time of 1:09.35, clocking his final 400 metres in :21.22.
Pakistan Star was bought by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for €180,000 at the Arqana August Sale in 2014 when named Ninas Shadow, and subsequently sold to Din Kerm for HK$6 million (£580,209/€693,374) at the Hong Kong International Sale in March. Pakistan Star is the second foal out of the dual German stakes winner Nina Celebre (Ire) (Peintre Celebre), who is herself a daughter of the G1 German Oaks winner Next Gina (Ger) (Perugino). Pakistan Star's third dam, Night Petticoat (Ger) (Petoski {GB}), also took the German Oaks and produced the G1 Deutsches Derby winner Next Desert (Ire) (Desert Style {Ire}). Nina Celebre has a 2-year-old Invincible Spirit (Ire) filly named Networking (Ger) and a yearling Lawman (Fr) colt named Ninas Law (Ire).
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