Owner-breeder John Cornish, the driving force behind Torryburn Stud, appears to have unearthed another top-class filly in Woodlands Stakes winner Stardom.

A former Australian Turf Club chairman with a proven record of producing stars like Hong Kong champions Hot King Prawn and Voyage Bubble, Cornish was also behind Stardom’s dam Diddums, who won the P J Bell Stakes in 2017.

Stardom joined a distinguished list of past Woodlands Stakes (1100m) winners, a group that includes Group 1 winner In Secret (2022), and Group 1 performers Libertini (2019) and Lazzura (2024).

“I think we’ve deserved it. A few drinks have gone past since we’ve had a good filly,” Cornish said.

“I thought she might have been beaten two, three times but (she put her) head down and she kept coming. That’s a good sign in a baby, isn’t it.”

Prepared by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Stardom had placed on debut behind Akaysha and the exciting colt Beadman at Kembla Grange before scoring dominantly over 1200m at Wagga.

Jockey Adam Hyeronimus was full of praise for the Tulloch Lodge training effort to freshen the filly back to 1100m for Saturday’s stakes win.

“Horses that come from the stable, they’re so sharp out of the gates and it puts them in a really good position to be dominant like she was today,” Hyeronimus said.

“It was a very good training performance from Gai and Adrian because generally the horses from the stable will always progress out over further once they’ve started racing but for them to bring her back to 1100 metres in a stakes race, although she won well at Wagga, it was always going to be difficult and that goes to Gai and Adrian.”

Starting at $3.60, Stardom took control at the top of the straight and held on gamely to win by a long neck over Wollzeile ($26), with favourite Akaysha ($2.40) running on late into third, a further length back.

Punters keen to follow Stardom’s rise through the ranks can find early odds and future markets at leading Australian betting sites.