The Everest winner Bella Nipotina will visit Australia’s champion sire Zoustar for her first mating this spring, with managing owner Michael Christian confirming his confidence in the match on both pedigree and physical type.
Christian’s Longwood Thoroughbred Farm paid $4.2 million for Bella Nipotina at May’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale, effectively buying out the other owners who had raced the four-time Group 1 winner.
After taking nearly three months to make a decision public, Christian confirmed he had chosen Zoustar, who on Friday will be crowned Australia’s champion sire of 2024/25.
“It was a difficult task to settle on Bella’s first suitor, but Zoustar will be this season’s champion sire, and we believe from a physical perspective he complements her perfectly,” Christian said.
“Our pedigree analysis also shows Zoustar is an ideal match for Bella. We're all very excited about this mating and looking forward to what lies ahead.”
Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson was delighted to book in the champion mare for his champion stallion who will stand at $275,000 this season.
“It will be an honour to welcome Bella Nipotina to Widden for her first season at stud,” Thompson said.
“Zoustar has a superb book of mares this year, but none faster or tougher than Bella Nipotina. She was a champion on the track, and we are thrilled to play a part in the next chapter of her journey.”
Zoustar has yet to have a foal out of a Pride Of Dubai mare, but has two stakes winners from mares by Pride Of Dubai’s sire Street Cry, Espionage and Arts Object
Brereton, a Group 3-winning son of Zoustar, is from the same female family as Bella Nipotina.
Bella Nipotina finished her career with 11 wins from 57 starts and stands second only to Winx on the all-time Australasian prize money list, having earned $22.7 million.
Bred by Christian’s Saconi Thoroughbreds, Bella Nipotina was sold for $80,000 as a yearling with Christian remaining in the ownership. She began her career at Lindsay Park, placing in a stakes race as a pre-Christmas two-year-old before winning a Group 3 during her three-year-old campaign.
She transferred to the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace stable later in her three-year-old season and broke through for her first Group 1 win in the spring of her five-year-old year, dominating the Manikato Stakes.
Proving herself one of Australia’s consistently top sprinters she was rewarded with Group 1s in the Doomben 10,000 and the Tatts Tiara as a six-year-old.
She then won The Everest last spring, becoming the first mare to claim Australia’s richest race.
Warwick Barr
