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Redvers confident as youngsters from the first crop of Tweenhills shuttler set be offered in northern hemisphere

Thursday marks another exciting chapter in the story of Group 1-producing Tweenhills Stud shuttler Zoustar (Northern Meteor), as the stallion’s first crop of northern hemisphere-bred foals hit the ring at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale in Newmarket. 

Zoustar, who calls Widden Stud home in the southern hemisphere, will be represented by 19 youngsters at Europe’s premier foal sale on Thursday and Friday, and Tweenhills owner and managing director David Redvers told Racing & Sports Bloodstock he was looking forward to seeing how the buying bench responds to the stallion’s first offerings this side of the globe. 

“We have had the benefit of seeing all his foals in Australia so we knew what to expect and we have some very good ones of our own in our draft here and at home on the farm and we are delighted with the ones we have seen at Tattersalls and we are confident we are going to ring a few bells this week,” said Redvers. 

Introduced in England at a fee of £25,000 in 2019 when he covered 149 mares, Zoustar then returned to Widden Stud that same year where he stood for a career high fee of $154,000 (inc GST), with the hike largely due to the exploits of his star daughter Sunlight, who subsequently went on to lead home a quinella for the stallion in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (registered as Ascot Vale Stakes) (Gr 1, 1200m) at Flemington in November 2019. 

Redvers said offering a ready made stallion represented ‘an open goal’ for breeders and believed his quinella in the Flemington Group 1 was a feat that did not go unnoticed to most industry participants in Europe. 

“I think he represents the stallion equivalent of an open goal at the moment and that is not lost on those breeders who have an international outlook and to anybody who pays attention to what goes on in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australasia and they all know he is a game-changing stallion,” said Redvers. 

“There is no question that the pinhookers, who tend to be the shrewdest judges in the market are all very keen.

“Obviously that quinella in the Coolmore Stud Stakes was a wonderful thing to launch him here in Europe off the back of and even those that were half asleep to Australian racing spotted that.”

Zoustar’s career here is a slight an anomaly in many ways, given that he stood his first season in Europe as a well-established stallion in his native country and this is something Redvers describes as a ‘Plan B’ after he missed his opportunity to showcase his prowess on a racecourse when injuring himself prior to his intended assault at the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) at Royal Ascot in 2014. 

“We brought him over to run in the Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot, for which he was short-priced favourite,” said Redvers. “Unfortunately, the week prior to running he knocked a joint and couldn’t compete, which is why we paraded him initially at the London Sale so people could see him. 

“After he missed Ascot, we then decided not to shuttle him for a few years, because obviously in Australia everyone knows about Northern Meteor, but up here it just wouldn’t mean a great deal to people, so even though he was champion three-year-old sprinter in Australia we decided that the obvious thing to do was let him get established down in Australia first. 

“We wanted to prove he was the real deal before bringing him here and he has proven beyond all doubt that he is the real deal. He’s already got three stallion sons at stud, two champions from his first crop, yearlings that sell for fortunes and Sunlight, who broke records on the track and when selling for a filly out of training.”

When launching an antipodean stallion into a new market comes with many risks, but Zoustar has proved he is a good match for bloodlines better associated with the northern hemisphere, headlined by his Listed-winning son Zoustyle being out of an Anabaa (Danzig) mare, while Group 2 winner and multiple Group 1-placegetter Zousain, who now stands alongside his father at Widden Stud, is out of a daughter of former Derrinstown Stud resident Elnadim (Danzig). 

“Zoustyle, who is a hugely talented horse in Queensland, and Zousain are out of mares with European bloodlines, so we knew that he crosses very well with the European bloodlines and gets stakes horses. 

“We know that he works, it was just a case of people over here seeing his stock and forming an opinion. You can tell a Zoustar a mile off, they’ve all got the same heads, big ears, eyes, wide jaws and a lovely way of going.”

Tweenhills themselves have supported the stallion heavily in his two seasons in Europe sending around 40 of their own to him and will continue to do so. 

“I think the key part for us has been to not send heaps of staying mares to a sprinter / miler stallion and we were very keen to breed the type of mare that suits the horse,” said Redvers.

“We have ourselves have given him unbelievable support, I wouldn’t think there has ever been a reverse shuttle stallion that has been supported so heavily by his syndicate and his owners and we sent him the best part of 40 mares on the farm and all our best speed mares, so he has a huge amount of support from the right sort of mares.

“You only have to look at some of the foals and there are some seriously fast looking colts and fillies on the complex for this sale.”

Redvers is confident Zoustar’s appeal in Australia has caught on in Europe and believes the foals on offer this week have done nothing but instill the same great faith that he and everyone else associated with the stallion has in the buyers at Park Paddocks this week and for years to come. 

“We know what we are dealing with now, so we have absolutely nothing but confidence in the horse and we have gone all in with him all along and supported him and he has always paid us handsomely and we expect him to do so in this part of the world,” said Redvers. 

“The sales ground is stuffed full of people who make their living out of buying good horses and when they see the Zoustars they know what they are looking at. 

“I have never been particularly worried about any aspect of promoting the horse up here, because we have such confidence in him, but I think that everyone else is now copping on and those that didn’t know much about him are starting to ask the question about who is he and what he has done because they like the foals so much.”