Zoustar steals Super Saturday show on great day for Widden
Stallion sires second Group 1 winner and juvenile Group 2 double as stud trifecta Newmarket
Widden Stud principal Antony Thompson has lauded a ‘special day’ for the historic operation, after witnessing their star stallion Zoustar (Northern Meteor) take centre stage on an enthralling Super Saturday, scoring a second Group 1 winner in Melbourne and an interstate Group 2 juvenile double, with Widden sires landing the trifecta in the time-honoured Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m).
A field of 17 went to post for this year’s running of the Newmarket but it was the Zoustar pair, Zoutori (5 g ex Atotori by Haradasun) and Indian Pacific, both among a group of four racing on the far side, that came clear to fight out a gruelling dual to the line, with the topweight emerging victorious by a head over the raider from Western Australia. Star Witness’ (Starcraft) Amish Boy, also among that group of four, stuck on to finish third, a length adrift of the winner, at odds of 80-1.
Meanwhile, in an electric 20-minute spell for Zoustar, the stallion sired Group 2 juvenile winners in Sydney and Melbourne as Glistening (2 f ex Beethog by Shovhog) booked her spot in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) in two weeks’ time with an all-the-way win in a furiously-run Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Royal Randwick, holding off the late challenge of another Widden-sired juvenile, Star Witness’ Swift Witness by a head, while at Flemington the flashy Lightsaber (2 c ex Dream Cirque by Dream Ahead) scored an impressive success in the VRC Sires’ Produce (Gr 2, 1400m).
Zoustar came within a whisker of a second Group 1 winner for the day, as Mizzy just missed out when lunging for the line in the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m), finishing second to Savatiano (Street Cry).
“For (Zoustar) to win his second Newmarket today and to watch those three horses fly up the finish was really special,” said Thompson. “These are rare moments for the racecourse and certainly ones to savour.”
Zoutori, a three-time Group 2 winner and Group 1 runner-up in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) prior to today’s triumph, is from the exceptional first crop of Zoustar that has produced champion filly Sunlight, as well as five further Group 2 winners, including stallions Zousain and Lean Mean Machine, and the five-year-old had to overcome a weight of 57 kilograms to become the stallion’s second Group 1 winner yesterday.
It is not the first time Widden have run the trifecta in a major Group 1 at Flemington over 1200 metres, as Sunlight led home a Zoustar one-two-three in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr, 1200m) in 2018, defeating Zousain and Lean Mean Machine, while this was a second Newmarket victory for the sire, after Sunlight’s win in 2019.
“The Newmarket is such a special race,” Thompson added. “In Australian racing the Newmarket is a fabulous race and holds enormous significance in the history of Australian racing and it was a fabulous race today and we’re so lucky to see the three progeny of our stallions fighting it out. It’s one for the mantelpiece.
“To field another Newmarket winner is fantastic. (Zoustar’s) been in the mix with some of these Group 1s, he trifecta’d the Coolmore, then a quinella again today in the Newmarket.
“It’s hard to compare them – for Zoustar to trifecta the Coolmore in his first crop, it really completed the four generations – Encosta De Lago, Northern Meteor, Zoustar, and for him to do that and for us to be there I think was very special.”
A $160,000 purchase for trainers Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra out of the 2017 Amarina Farm draft at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, Zoutori is one of three foals to race out of the unraced Haradasun (Fusaichi Pegasus) mare Atotori, herself a half-sister to South African Group 3 winner Castlethorpe (Not A Single Doubt), while his third dam, Phoenix Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) winner Park Express (Ahonoora), is the dam of champion two- and three-year-old in Europe, New Approach (Galileo).
Zoustar will likely have his first Golden Slipper runner since Sunlight’s third-placed finish in the race in 2018 through the Richard and Michael Freedman-trained Glistening, while Melbourne two-year-old winner Lightsaber could head to Sydney for their Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) on April 3.
“It was a great day for his versatility,” said Thompson. “His two-year-olds today were a filly and a colt, and then his three Group 1 performers with the older horses, there’s a mare and a five-year-old in there.
“We always had belief that true to the sireline these would always be very versatile horses. It’s a sireline that has tremendous consistency and versatility and we saw that today.”
The Newmarket trifecta and Sires’ victory also coincides with the announcement a fortnight ago that Widden Stud would take over the Riddells Creek property previously occupied by Sun Stud, launching their ambitions in Victoria.
“It’s a great bit of timing and backs up what we’re doing in Victoria,” Thompson continued. “As for the stallions that we’re launching there, they had a bit of a frustrating day with Star Witness running placings with Swift Witness and Amish Boy, and then Nicconi just missing out with Nature Strip in Sydney.
“But these are Group 1-winning and Group 1-producing sires in Victoria and when we made the decision to move these stallions to Victoria it was made quite strategically, looking at what would suit the market and what would work. It just goes to vindicate our decisions.”
A Glistening result for fillies’ partnership in muddled Slipper picture
In claiming a Group 2 win on what was just her second start, Glistening marked the first success of a new fillies’ partnership between trainers Richard and Michael Freedman and bloodstock agent James Harron, who secured the filly for $260,000 out of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
A runner-up on debut in the Black Opal Preview (1100m) on February 19, she surged to the front from barrier 8, then kicked clear at the 250-metre mark and held on from the desperate lunge of the fast-finishing Swift Witness, with Godolphin’s Trifaccia (I Am Invincible) in third, becoming her sire, Zoustar’s, 19th individual stakes winner, shortly before Lightsaber made it number 20 in Melbourne.
“James Harron and I have put together a fillies’ partnership and this is the first filly out of that. To have a Group winner out of that is a big thrill,” said co-trainer Michael Freedman.
“It wasn’t probably the plan to lead today. I don’t think she’s one to jump and sit on speed type. It was probably dictated a little bit to us by the barrier today.
“I actually think she’s a better filly sitting off the speed a little bit. We’ll let the dust settle and I guess she’s in the race now, so it certainly gives us some options. James and I will have a chat about it and if she pulls up all right out of it we might have a shot at the stumps.”
Glistening is out of Group 3 winner Beethog (Shovhog), who has a Nicconi (Bianconi) filly at foot and was placed in foal to Zousain last year.
Meanwhile the Slipper picture is unlikely to be impacted by the win of the Peter Moody-trained Lightsaber, the possessor of a unique silver tail, who was another to lead from start to finish, making the most of his inside barrier (3) to win cosily in the VRC Sires’ Produce by one and a half lengths from Saif (Pride Of Dubai), who just touched off Micro (Medaglia D’Oro) for second.
The colt, a $100,000 purchase out of the Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale for Blueblood Thoroughbreds, holds an entry for the ATC Sires’ Produce (Gr 1, 1400m) on April 3.
“We’ll go home and think about it,” Moody said. “Do we lift the bar again? He’s had his fourth in his first prep, but we saw all the superstars get beaten in Sydney earlier today and the Melbourne two-year-old form stood up. We won’t run and hide, will we?
“We’ll just hope, first and foremost, the old cliche, we’ll take him home and see how he pulls up and we’ll have a chat to the ownership group.”
Lightsaber is the first winner from one to race out of unraced mare Dream Cirque (Dream Ahead), with the colt’s fourth dam being Piccadilly Circus (Royal Academy), the dam of Coolmore stallion Fastnet Rock (Danehill). The mare has a Capitalist (Written Tycoon) colt at foot and is in foal to Tassort (Brazen Beau) this year.
The Melbourne form held up in the Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) earlier on the card, with Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) third Anamoe (Street Boss) bursting through the pack to snatch the win from well-fancied rivals Profiteer (Capitalist) and Silver Slipper (Gr 2, 1100m) winner Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), while boom colt Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) finished fourth.
The result means the Godolphin colt joins Profiteer and Stay Inside at the top of betting markets ahead of the Black Opal (Gr 3, 1200m) in Canberra today in which both Silver Slipper runner-up Rocket Tiger (Cluster), as well as debut winner Bourbon Flyer (Flying Artie), seek a back-door entry to the Golden Slipper.
“This is a classy colt, there’s no doubt about that,” said trainer James Cummings of the winner. “We barely breathed on the horse since he got back from Melbourne. He absorbed a little bit of that pressure and slid up underneath them and then to hit line so strongly, he’s got Golden Slipper written all over him.
“We try and leave a little bit of improvement in him, we didn’t want him going away and winning by ten lengths, but we were quietly confident that we had a colt capable of upsetting some of the favoured horses here and the others in the race have gone well.
“He’s probably due a gate and let’s hope he gets one in two weeks’ time and that the reward for running in the Slipper will be enormous. He’s a natural horse, with the blinkers off, he was very focused and knuckled down and I don’t think there’s any more you need to say to complicate it. He heads to the Slipper and I think he’s a live chance.”
Anamoe is the fourth living foal out of Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Anamato (Redoute’s Choice), making him a half-brother to Irish Listed winner Anamba (Shamardal). The mare missed to Kermadec (Teofilo) in 2019 and is currently in foal to Darley stallion Blue Point (Shamardal).