The Top Five Australian-bred stars of 2025

This content has been sponsored by and produced on behalf of Aushorse by The Straight

As the 2026 Aushorse Investor’s Guide points out, Australia delivers opportunity and prestige like nowhere else in the world, whether it be in the breeding barn, in the sales ring or on the racetrack.

As 2025 comes to an end, it’s worth reflecting on the Australian-bred horses who made the biggest impact, changing lives and grabbing headlines in equal measure.

There have been so many stars with the (Aus) suffix throughout 2025, both on the local scene and overseas, but there are also key standouts.

1. Autumn Glow

As a $1.8 million three-quarter sister to a Group 1 winner, the Newhaven Park-bred Autumn Glow was always primed to hit the spotlight.

For her owners Arrowfield Stud and Hermitage Thoroughbreds, she has been worth every penny, with every one of her eight straight career wins catapulting her value skywards, as well as increasing the prominence of her Arrowfield-based sire, The Autumn Sun.

As things stand, heading into 2026 the four-year-old mare is unbeaten in eight starts, having banked $6.8 million in prize money. Her most recent win was in the Golden Eagle, having registered her Group 1 stamp in her previous success in the Epsom.

In a boost for Australian racing, Arrowfield’s John Messara has voiced his desire to keep her racing as a five-year-old, with Chris Waller’s reputation for improving mares with age an indication that her best may be yet to come.     

That is also good news for her three-quarter brother, In The Congo, the Group 1-winning Newgate-based sire whose first crop of yearlings are about to hit the 2026 sales.

2 – Voyage Bubble

Australian-bred horses have long been dominant in Hong Kong, with Voyage Bubble, the son of Deep Field, the latest in a string of Group 1 winners in the Asian racing mecca.

Torryburn Stud has proven a nursery of some superstars of the Australian turf over the years, including in recent times, the likes of Home Affairs, Espiona and Hot King Prawn.  

Voyage Bubble is the latest star to emerge from the Cornish family-owned stud. A $380,000 sale-topper from the 2020 Inglis Classic Sale, he has now banked HK$129 million, the equivalent of AU$25 million.   

In 2025, the Ricky Yiu-trained star added a further four Group 1s to his resume and the equivalent of AU$9.5 million, more than any other horse in Hong Kong over the year.

It started out with a second straight win in the Stewards’ Cup in January, followed by a dominant victory in the Hong Kong Gold Cup in February. His third Group 1 of the year came in the Champions and Chater Cup in May.

In December, he won the Hong Kong Mile for the second straight year, enhancing an amazing career which has featured 12 wins from 29 starts.

3 – Half Yours

While the focus of Australia’s racing and breeding industry has increasingly become about sprinting in recent years, the mystique of the Melbourne Cup still captivates Australian racing fans.

For a second year in a row, the famous race produced an Australian-bred fairytale, with the victory of Half Yours, ridden by champion Australian jockey Jamie Melham, and trained by one of Australia’s great racing families, Tony and Calvin McEvoy.

There were many threads to the Half Yours’ story. He was bred by Colin and Janice McKenna, by a low profile imported stallion out of a female family which has been in Australia for close to 125 years. On the surface, it wasn’t a pedigree to set hearts aflutter.

Set to be retained before Colin McKenna’s death in late 2024, he was offered via Inglis Digital and picked up for $305,000 by bloodstock agent Damon Gabbedy on behalf of the McEvoys.

His 2025 began with a second in a benchmark 64 race at Sandown in March, before wins at Seymour in April, Rosehill in May and Sunshine Coast in July. In a throwback to the old-fashioned Cups campaigns of the past, he kept racing in every month from March, competing up and down the eastern seaboard.

He won a Group 3 at Caulfield in September and would claim the Caulfield Cup in October.

The fairytale run was then complete when Half Yours sliced through the field, aided by a brilliant ride from Melham, to comfortably win the Melbourne Cup.

His total prize money for the year was $9.2 million, with six wins.

4 – Zougotcha

Bred by Widden Stud, Zougotcha did not grace the racetrack in 2025, but it was her appearance on the Magic Millions sales grounds in May which earned her a place on this list.

Initially purchased for $500,000 by Chris Waller and Guy Mulcaster at the 2021 Inglis Yearling Sale, Zougotcha would provide many times that investment for her owners on the track, with three Group 1 wins and $2.7 million in prize money.

The latest star to emerge from the sireline of Australian-bred trio Zoustar/Northern Meteor/Encosta De Lago, she hailed from a damline which had initially come to Widden Stud in the 1940s.

Carrying a pedigree which was replete with black-type, anticipation was high when she arrived on the Gold Coast for the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, where she would be offered by Waller.

The bidding was intense and settled down to a battle between Coolmore and Olly Tait, the latter believed to be bidding on behalf of global powerhouse Wathnan Racing.

Coolmore won the day with a $5.25 million bid, with a date with star stallion Wootton Bassett immediately booked.

 It was the highest price for a broodmare in Australia for the year. In fact, the top four priced broodmares in Australia in 2026, – Bella Nipotina, Amelia’s Jewel and Tiz Invincible – were all Australian-bred.

5 – Starspangledbanner

It is arguable that Zoustar should have been the Australian-bred stallion to feature on this list, given he claimed the prize as Australia’s champion stallion for the first time, and was second in the world throughout 2025 as the stallion with the most winners.

We have opted for a slightly different nominee this year, with Aussie-bred Starspangledbanner enjoying a marquee year globally for his progeny.

Now confined to duties in Ireland, Starspangledbanner’s 2025 included stakes winners in six different countries, among them Group 1 winning two-year-old pair, Precise and Gstaad.

Gstaad, a winner of the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, was three times a runner-up at Group 1 level before rounding off his juvenile season with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. He claimed the Cartier Award for best two-year-old colt, while Precise, a winner of the Newmarket Fillies Mile and the Moyglare Stud Stakes, won the best two-year-old fillies category.

All in all, there were seven stakes winning two-year-olds from that crop of Starspangledbanner in 2025, giving promising signs for their three-year-old season.

His total stakes winners across all crops was 15, with winners in 21 different countries.

It’s been quite a journey for a Choisir colt bred by Tony Santic. Purchased for $120,000 as a yearling, he won Group 1 races in Australia and Great Britain before heading to a dual hemisphere breeding career with Coolmore. He overcame fertility issues early in his breeding career to build a formidable record at stud.

As things stand, he has 10 Group 1 winners and 59 stakes winners across a career which only now seems to be hitting its peak.

This content has been sponsored by and produced on behalf of Aushorse by The Straight