Eagle Eye Star impresses

SHARLEE Hoffman had to do a quick double take when Eagle Eye Star first returned from her Tablelands paddock.

“I was looking at him thinking ‘have I got the right horse’,” Hoffman said of the threeyear-old gelding.

“He was only a little guy, but when he came back he’d grown a hand and looked like a totally different horse.”

And that short period has totally changed Eagle Eye Star’s young career.

Before that, he’d jagged two seconds and a third from five starts across north Queensland’s tracks.

He’s had a second and two wins in the three starts since.

With a two-start streak under his belt, Hoffman will give him a start in the QTIS Three-Year-Old HCP (1250m) at Cairns Jockey Club on Saturday, the third race in a monster 10-race program.

Hoffman is well aware she’s testing the young horse, as he tries to back up just a week after winning over the same distance in Townsville.

And he will line up in a hot field led by pre-race favourite King Jester, who has won at his last three starts for Rodney Miller, and Avatea for Mark Dale, who will start for the first time since winning over 1400m in November. The first race jumps at 11.19am.