EASTERN STAR looked terribly unlucky not to take out the evening's first event at Sha Tin last night.
The race was won well by the Dean McKeown-ridden Zeus - another example of the English rider hugging the rails on his way to victory - but had Eastern Star kept a straight course or given any kind of assistance to Walter Swinburn then he would almost certainly have prevailed.
Eastern Star wandered around all over the place in the straight but was finishing hand over fist and can be followed.
This was only his third start in the territory and he has been improving with each and every one.
He had only ordinary form before coming here but the way he is shaping he is going to prove more than good enough to win in Class Three.
Yesterday's opener was over 1,200 metres but the way he hit the line, and the way he went to the post last time out, suggests that he will do even better when pushed up to 1,400 metres. He could even stay a mile.
