Shystar’s victory at Ballarat came on a day of mixed emotions for Shae Dinunzio, who earlier learned of the passing of his first boss and racing mentor, Paul Beshara.

Dinunzio launched his racing career in Adelaide with Beshara — the trainer of triple Group 1 winner Happy Trails — before relocating to Victoria to work alongside Phillip Stokes as an assistant trainer.

Returning to the Ballarat mounting yard after winning the $250,000 Sportsbet Emerging Stars (1400m), Dinunzio spoke proudly but with a heavy heart.

“It’s been a bit of a tough day,” Dinunzio said.

“We lost Paul Beshara today and our thoughts go out to Collette and the family.

“He was a great man to me. He got me into racing and was my first boss and I reckon he might have willed that over the line in the last 50 (metres).”

Ridden aggressively by Lachlan Neindorf, Shystar ($3.10) pushed forward and dug deep late to deny the $3 bookies favourite Royal Flare, with Golden Spritz ($17) finishing close-up in third.

Dinunzio said Stokes identified the Emerging Stars Series as an ideal target when Shystar resumed from her two-year-old campaign.

“We picked out one of the heats at Geelong and she won well there,” he said.

“She’s a promising filly but the question mark was the soft track and probably 1400 metres.

“It’s probably not her sweet spot, 1200 metres probably is, but it was the perfect race for her, very suitable.”

With her future still unfolding, the stable is adopting a steady approach.

“We’ll just go through our grades but she’s probably a Stakes grade Adelaide filly in the autumn, so we’ve just got to plot a path to get there,” Dinunzio said.

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