Zoustar to stand at Tweenhills in 2019

Record breaking Australian first-season sire Zoustar, part-owned by Qatar Racing, will stand at Tweenhills Stud in Gloucestershire for the 2019 breeding season.

Currently based at Widden Stud in New South Wales, Zoustar will shuttle to the UK next season where he will join the Qatar Racing stallion roster. European breeders will have access to the most promising young stallion in the southern hemisphere.

The Australian 3YO champion sprinter has made a sensational start to his stud career, siring three Group 2 winners in his first crop. These include Sunlight, the Magic Millions 2YO Classic and Silver Slipper Gr. 2 winner who then placed in the richest two-year-old race in the world, the Golden Slipper Stakes Gr. 1. He also sired the one-two in the Sires' Produce Stakes Gr. 2 at Doomben with his sons Lean Mean Machine and Zousain. Zousain who had previously won the Champagne Classic Gr. 2, then went on to finish runner up by a neck in the J.J Atkins Plate Gr. 1 over a mile.

With his progeny collecting over A$3 million in prize money earnings to date, the handsome son of Northern Meteor has broken the all-time prize money record for an Australasian Champion first-season sire and currently sits in 3rd on their sires of two-year-olds table behind Snitzel and I Am Invincible.

Unsurprisingly Zoustar's yearlings have proven extremely popular at the sales making up to A$1m and this year, averaging A$200,000, with a top price to of A$800,000 at Magic Millions. His 15 weanlings sold at the recent Magic Millions breeding stock sales for an average of A$161,000 with a top price of A$310,000.

Zoustar's move to Tweenhills Stud, home of Qatar Racing stallions, will see leading first season sires from both hemispheres on their stallion roster, as he joins Havana Gold, Hot Streak, and Charm Spirit.

Zoustar's northern hemisphere career will be officially launched at the QIPCO Goffs London Sale on Monday 18 June where he was paraded at its first sale in 2014. He will cover a limited northern hemisphere book and his fee will be announced at a later date.

David Redvers, owner of Tweenhills Stud and bloodstock and racing manager to H.H Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, commented;

‚"The opportunity to stand the sensational Champion Zoustar at Tweenhills is the most exciting thing I have been involved with in my career. The buzz surrounding this horse and what he has achieved in Australia is deafening and to be able to stand him alongside Qatar Racing's other sensational young stallions is an honour and a challenge that my team and I relish.

‚"From the first moment Sheikh Fahad and I saw Zoustar at Flemington we were convinced that we were witnessing something special and had to be involved. He has that rare mixture of precocity, natural speed, turn of foot, pedigree and physical presence you see in only a very few genuinely top flight stallions. We were spellbound and have been 'all-in' ever since.

‚"I'm not sure European breeders have ever been offered access to such an exciting Australian stallion at this point in his career and news has been received with tremendous support and enthusiasm from Europe's leading farms.‚"

Antony Thompson, owner of Widden Stud, commented;

‚"Zoustar standing at Tweenhills provides a rare chance to showcase one of our hottest young stallions in Europe. We were always confident that he is a stallion who would leave his mark and see great success in both hemispheres. He is a beautiful looking horse, a Champion racehorse with a great temperament, he stamps his stock who are every inch like their sire, and he has the potential to even surpass his own magnificent and much missed sire, Northern Meteor.‚"

Chris Waller, Australia's leading Group 1 winning trainer and trainer of Zoustar and his Gr2 winning sons Zousain and Lean Green Machine commented;

‚"It's a privilege to see Zoustar stamping his horses with so much quality, surely this is a great sign similar to the great stallions we have seen in the past.‚"

For further details on Zoustar please visit the Tweenhills Stud website at www.tweenhills.com, or contact David Redvers on +44 7767 436373 or Hannah Wall on +447748 647313.