by Michael Burns

Fairy Magic closed out his sophomore season on Saturday with a victory in the $139,250 Gran Premio Estrellas Classic–Copa Escribano Hernan Ceriani Cernadas (Arg-G1), the highlight of the Carreras de las Estrellas card, Argentina's version of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, at San Isidro.

Under a well-timed ride from Juan Carlos Noriega, the Southern Halo colt finished strongest in the stretch to score by three-quarters of a length over longshot Honey Nov.

Multiple Argentine champion and 2005 Estrellas Classic winner Latency, the first horse to start in the race in three consecutive years, finished another half-length back in third in a driving finish.

Trained by Hugo Constantino for owner Stud Las Hormigas, Fairy Magic completed the 2,000-meter (9.94 furlong) race on firm turf in 1:58.64 to earn his first Group 1 victory and fifth overall in eight career starts. He entered off a 3 1/2-length score in a 1,600-meter (7.95-furlong) allowance raceat San Isidro on June 16.

Bred by the late Hernan Ceriani Cernadas’s Haras La Quebrada, Fairy Magic is out of the Lookinforthebigone mare Fairy Story.

In other Carrera de las Estrellas races:

Greco Tom made his first start on turf a winning one by defeating favorite and Group 3 winner Que Felicidad by a neck in the $23,208 Estrellas Juniors Sprint (Arg-G1).

Haras Abolengo’s homebred filly Inca Noble romped to an impressive seven-length victory over Group 1 winner Wiskola in the $69,625 Estrellas Juvenile Fillies – Copa Dr. Pedro C. Blaquier (Arg-G1) to extend her unbeaten streak to two under the world’s winningest rider, Jorge Ricardo.

The Honour and Glory colt Mach Glory, runner-up to Morador Llers in the Gran Premio Gran Criterium (Arg-G1) on June 3, closed out his two-year-old season in style with a two-length victory over favorite Sentimiento Cat in the $69,625 Estrellas Juvenile (Arg-G1).

In the $46,216 Gran Premio Estrellas Distaff (Arg-G1), Haras Firmamento homebred Cachorra Wells, a four-year-old Poliglote filly, held off favorite Teamgeist to score by a neck.

Storm Marcopolo, a Bernstein colt, scored his second straight Group 1 victory under Ricardo in the $20,887 Gran Premio Estrellas Sprint (Arg-G1) in the final Group 1 race of the Carreras de las Estrellas program.

Michael Burns is a South America-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent