Xidaki shines in Guineas triumph at the Coast
Son of Zoustar leads home quinella for Widden Stud-based stallion
As they enter the final days of their partnership, father and son Peter and Paul Snowden celebrated their 203rd stakes win when the progressive Xidaki (Zoustar) produced a gutsy display to win the rescheduled Winx Guineas (Gr 3, 1600m) at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.
Last weekend’s deluge forced the Group 3 contest to be rearranged for eight days later, but despite the move, the conditions were still unfavourable and the meeting went ahead with the ground rated a Heavy9.
However, Xidaki clearly thrived on the wet deck, storming home from the back of the field under Vlad Duric to beat Danny O’Brien’s Miss Aria (Zoustar) by 0.1 lengths and in the process led home a quinella for Widden Stud’s marquee stallion Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
The Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich-trained Know Thyself (The Autumn Sun) finished a further length away in third.
Sunday’s victory was the gelding’s third win in nine starts, a haul which includes his victory in the Canberra Guineas (Listed, 1400m) in March and Peter Snowden said he was worried the Group 3 might be a step too far for the three-year-old.
“It has been a bit stop and start with him but he’s just such a genuine racehorse. He’s a real giver, he’s a real trier and those sort of horses get these wins,” said Snowden, who will train on his own next season.
“The preparation I gave him, I’ve been doubting myself all week and when we didn’t front up last week I thought it would be too hard a job.”
Snowden admitted that he hadn’t expected Xidaki to be at the back during the run, but was relieved to see the gelding produce an impressive turn of foot late on in proceedings.
“It is a tremendous effort. Good effort by the team again to come up and keep him up. I’ve got to say that I was worried. They weren’t the instructions we gave there before the race, to get that far back.
“But he rounded them up quick and he was very strong late.”
Duric said he was impressed with the way Xidaki finished the race off.
“He didn’t have any favours early from the wide draw so I just took my medicine and went right back on him,” the winning rider said.
“When I peeled out I was trying to wait on him as long as I could but to his credit, he won the race. When he was challenged he wouldn’t let that horse pass him.”
Retained to race by his breeders, Xidaki (3 g Zoustar – Athanea by General Nediym) is one of four winners and the only stakes scorer out of dual-winning mare Athanea.
Athanea’s dam Jannah (Carnegie) is a half-sister to Group 3 winner and Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) runner-up Crowned Glory (Danehill) who is now better known as the dam of dual Group 1 winner and Twin Hills-based sire Hallowed Crown (Street Sense) as well as Group 3 scorer Needs Further (Encosta De Lago), who stands at Armidale Stud.
Further back this is the same family as the breed-shaping Group 1-winning stallion Zabeel (Sir Tristram).
Athanea has an unraced two-year-old named Homeric (Brutal), who is also in training with the Snowdens. She produced a filly by Zoustar’s barn companion Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) last year and was covered by fellow Widden Stallion Portland Sky (Deep Field) in October.
Xidaki is one of 17 Australian stakes winners for Zoustar this season and he will stand the 2024 term for a career-high fee of $275,000 (inc GST), up from the $220,000 (inc GST) he commanded last spring.