Up until the running of the Group III Winx Guineas at the Sunshine Coast on July 14, a matter of pennies separated Zoustar and Dundeel for Champion 3yo Sire.
Zoustar put that race to bed when Xidaki and Miss Aria finished 1-2 in the $300,000 feature, and Widden's flagship stallion held a $200,000 lead when the season closed a few weeks later.
It was the second time Zoustar had won the honour after his outstanding daughter Sunlight contributed over $2.1 million of his total of $6.7 million in the 2018-19 season.
While pop-up races have rendered earnings, if not meaningless, to be treated with a healthy dose of scepticism, Zoustar checks out across the board.
The son of Northern Meteor had six stakes-winning 3-year-olds headed by the Group 1 MRC One Thousand Guineas and Group II ATC Arrowfield 3YO Sprint Stakes winner Joliestar, who contributed 1,677,575 to Zoustar's tally of $9,493,233.
Last season's Champion 3yo Sire was Scissor Kick, whose son Giga Kick contributed $9.5 million to the total of $9.9 million, a notable selling point for Scissor Kick's new home in Tunisia.
Scissor Kick and Giga Kick have a connection with the Zoustar filly Right To Party, who contests the first stakes race of the season, the Group III Aurie's Star Hcp (1200m) at Flemington on Saturday.
All were bred and raced by Jonathon Munz's Pinecliff Racing.
Right To Party added to Zoustar's 3-year-old haul when she opened her stakes account in the Listed Creswick Sprint Series Final over Saturday's course and distance.
Trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, Right To Party will need to go to another level as this is a field of hard-knocking sprinters, stable favourites that rarely race outside stakes company.
There is no better example than the 8-year-old Zoustar gelding The Astrologist, who has banked over $2.4 million. The Bennett Racing colour-bearer won the Aurie's Star in 2021, was edged out by Roch 'N' Horse in the 2022 Newmarket Handicap, chased home Cylinder and Imperatriz in the 2024 Newmarket, and was brave in a winless overseas sojourn in Dubai and Europe, highlighted by his fighting second in the Al Quoz Sprint and Dubai World Cup night.
That's a long way of saying The Astrologist comes from the second crop of Zoustar and is still racing competitively.
Back to Right To Party, who has won three and placed in five of her 11 starts.
She is a half-sister to Group III winner Big Party and Group placed sprinters Top Me Up and General Groove and is one of six winners from seven foals to race for the unraced Dehere (USA) mare De Groove.
De Groove is a sister to stakes-winner Super Groove and a half-sister to the talented, though ultimately underachieving sprinter Taikun (Anabaa), winner of the Group III Star Kingdom Stakes and Group III Concorde Stakes and second in the Group 1 The Galaxy.
After bleeding, Taikun was exported to America, where he was stakes-placed.
De Groove's half-sister Gypsy's Best (Redoute's Choice) is the granddam of Group III MRC Caulfield Guineas Prelude winner and Group 1 Caulfield Guineas third, Steparty (Artie Schiller).
This is the family that we have visited many times, descending from the Neville Begg-trained import, Gypsy Moss (IRE). The daughter of Mossborough finished second to Divide And Rule in the 1970 Group I Stradbroke Handicap before defeating the champion son of Alcimedes a fortnight later in the Listed Tattersall's Cup.
It is a family that has branched off in several highly successful directions and was represented recently by Zoustar's aforementioned Group 1 winner, Joliestar and Winx Guineas runner-up, Miss Aria.
Joliestar's Group II winning dam Jolie Bay is a sister to Merchant Navy out of the Sweet Embrace Stakes winner Legally Bay, who is a half-sister to Group 1 Myer Classic winner Bonaria, the dam of Miss Aria and a fourth-generation descendent of Gypsy Moss (IRE).
The 20-year-old De Groove is near the end of her productive life. The daughter of Dehere (USA) was not covered in 2021 and missed in 2022 and 2023.
Hopefully, Right To Party can continue her legacy.
