With the stallion-making $1million Golden Rose Stakes launching the 3yo Group 1 season it’s the speed sires Zoustar, Star Witness and Nicconi who are living proof of that ‘Australian speed and toughness is what makes champion sires,’ as they hail from Widden Stud, in the Valley of Champions.
Saturday’s 1400m Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes number 1 saddlecloth is Zoustar’s 3yo bay colt Lean Mean Machine, a $5.50 chance to be ridden Tye Angland for champion trainer Chris Waller. Carrying the colts set weight of 56.5 kg with a 94 benchmark, he will start from barrier 7 in a 11 horse field.
Lean Mean Machine is coming off a win in the Run To The Rose of 1200m on a heavy 8 track on 8 September, having won the BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes 1350m at Doomben in May. A first start winner over 1000m at Warwick Farm, he has run third in both the Kindergarden Stakes and Ken Russell Memorial Classic in all his six race starts.
Bred by Glenlogan Park, Lean Mean Machine was purchased by the racing part ownership of Raffles Racing, Aquis Farm and Blue Sky Bloodstock for $250,000 at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. He is from Favelon stakes winning mare She’s Meaner, who is half-sister to the Group 2 winner Love Conquers All, from the Avondale Gold Cup winning mare She’s A Meanie.
Widden’s Golden Rose and Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Zoustar was crowned the Champion First Season Sire of 2017-18 with Sunlight, his Magic Million Classic heroine, aiming for the Coolmore Stud Stakes. Already this season Zoiustar is Leading Second Season Sire and third as both the Champion Sire of 2YO and 3YO’s.
Trainer Chris Waller also prepares Zousain, a bay son of Zoustar, in the Golden Rose, who is weighted on 56.5kg for jockey James McDonald. Rated a $8.00 chance starting from barrier 1, he is raced by Qatar Bloodstock and partners, which includes Widden Stud.
Zousain finished fourth to Lean Mean Machine in the Run To The Rose at Rosehill at his previous start, having won the Champagne Stakes 1200m at Doomben in May. Also second to Lean Mean Machine in the BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes, he was second again in the JJ Atkins Stakes to The Autumn Sun.
A $400,000 purchase by Qatar’s David Redgraves and Mulcaster Bloodstock at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Zousain is from Pasar Silbano, the Irish-bred Group 3 Santa Anita winner.
Pasar Silbano is full-sister to Irish stakes winner Come To Heel, by the July Cup winning shuttle sire Elnadim, and half-sister to the English and Hong Kong stakes winner Gerfalcon-Geronimo Meadow.
Widden’s Champion Australian 3YO Colt in Star Witness has his 3yo son Graff as the $3.40 race favourite in the Golden Rose. Graff won the San Domenico Stakes 1100m at Rosehill on 25 August, and was second in the Run To The Rose to Lean Mean Machine at his previous start.
Trained by Kris Lees at Broadmeadow, Graff has drawn barrier 4 and will be ridden by Jason Collett, and had won over 1100m and Rosehill and 1300m at Hawkesbury in April.
A duel Group 1 winner of the Coolmore Stud Stakes and the Blue Diamond Stakes Star Witness is the best produce of the multiple Group 1 winner Starcraft, with Graff racing in the grey, with red diagonal striped silks of Alan Bell.
Alan Bell purchased Graff for $200,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from Widden Stud, as agents. The second foal of Gr3 winner Dinkum Diamond, sired by Sunday Silence’s son Keep The Faith, Graff’s granddam is the Gr3 winning mare Raja Lane.
Nicconi’s extra slick son Nature Strip is the Australian Turf Club’s slot representative for The Everest for Saturday 13 October at Royal Randwick, with $13 million total prizemoney. Nature Strip is now trained by Darren Weir at Baringhup in Victoria.
The Lightning Handicap and The Galaxy winner Nicconi has really come of age with Nature Strip winning 8 of his 11 race starts including the McEwen Stakes, Lightning Stakes and Creswick Stakes in the last of his four consecutive race wins.
Bred and consigned by Golden Grove Stud, Nature Strip is a graduate of the 2016 Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale. A half-brother to stakes winner The Barrister-High Volatility (HK), Nature Strip is from Desert Sun Gr3 McEwen Trophy winning mare Strikeline, and a half-sister to the Gr 3 winner Bashful Girl, from the stakes winning mare Strike High.
By Bernard Kenny