News

Zarita Retired to Stud

1st Jun 2010

Breednet - Tara Madgwick - Wednesday, 2 June 2010

As a dual Group One winner of more than $1,6 million in prizemoney, star mare Zarita has been a great favourite with many punters and racegoers, her owners this week deciding to draw the curtains on a wonderful racing career with her next engagement a trip to Coolmore Stud.

“Zarita has been such a star for us and when she raced in Adelaide at her last start, she just wasn’t herself so we decided it was time for a change as there is nothing left for her to prove on the track,” explained Bill Frost, who owns Zarita with his wife Pat and daughter Cassandra, an avid racing and breeding fan, who attends all the sales.

“She’s won a couple of Group Ones, five Group Two’s and was beaten a length and a half when fourth in an Australian Cup and a Cox Plate.”

Trained by Pat Hyland throughout her career, Zarita (pictured) was purchased as a yearling for $195,000 from the Rich Hill draft and is one of a select group of fillies and mares that make up the bloodstock portfolio for the Frost family owned Pendant Equine Syndicate.

“We focus on the fillies at the yearling sales and run it as a commercial business with the plan to eventually establish an elite broodmare band of around seven to ten that we can breed on with, retaining the fillies for the future and selling the colts,” said Frost.

“The mares are split between Basinghall Farm in Victoria and Widden Stud in the Hunter with Zarita and our other former top class filly Ballet Society, who is in foal to Redoute’s Choice and going to Lonhro, the best of them at present.”

The process of selecting a partner for Zarita has been an enjoyable task and one that has led her owners to Fastnet Rock, who will stand at Coolmore this spring at a fee of $137,500.

“Given her pedigree you have the option of all the big names, but in the end it came down to Redoute’s Choice, Flying Spur and Fastnet Rock,” said Frost.

“We already have Ballet Society in foal to Redoute’s Choice and have another two year-old filly by him from Rockabubble, so you don’t want all your eggs in one basket and we can always come back to him, so we went with Fastnet Rock, who is the sire of a really good filly we race called Jolie Brise.”

A $400,000 purchase from the 2008 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, Jolie Brise burst to prominence last spring winning three consecutive races before finishing fourth to Irish Lights in the Group One MRC Thousand Guineas.

“She got sick with a virus in the autumn that took a while to diagnose and as a result has been off the scene for quite some time, but she’s fine now and we’re looking forward to the spring with her and hoping to get some of that Black Type we know she deserves,” said Frost.

A the recent sales, Pendant Equine purchased just the one yearling, a filly by Flying Spur from Fulton for $450,000 from the draft of Torryburn Stud at the 2010 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

A full sister to stakes-winner Flying Fulton from the family of stakes-winners Zapurple, Purple Groove, Taikun, Irises and Super Groove, she is being trained by Mick Price.

“She was a filly we liked very much, as did a lot of others, so in the end we paid about $50,000 more than I would have liked, but that’s often the case when you are looking to buy quality,” said Frost.

“We spit the horses evenly between Pat Hyland and Mick Price, who has had this filly broken in already.”

Fastnet Rock is currently in Ireland serving his first Northern Hemisphere mares and will be welcomed home with another stellar collection of blue-blooded local matrons with Zarita, a prized addition to his 2010 book.

"I am obviously delighted that Bill Frost and his family have chosen Fastnet Rock as a first mate for Zarita,” said Colm Santry, Nominations and Sales Manager at Coolmore.

“She was a fantastic racemare, a dual G1 winner hailing from a hugely desirable family as we saw at Easter with her half-sister realising $1.3m to be the highest priced filly of the sale.”

The sale of her Zabeel half-sister at Inglis Easter coincided with a globetrotting win in Dubai for her Hong Kong based half-brother Joy and Fun, who won the Group Three Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan during the Dubai World Cup meeting in March and is also among entries for the Group One Golden Jubilee Stakes on the last day of Royal Ascot.

“Fastnet Rock is considered by many as the best young stallion seen in Australasia since Danehill and the mating makes significant appeal on any number of levels,” explains Santry.

“It's a lovely pedigree cross, the same Danehill/Be My Guest cross that brought us seven-time G1 winner Rock Of Gibraltar, while physically he appeals as a perfect mating for the mare's first foal.

“Obviously any progeny from a mare like Zarita is likely to be of significant commercial appeal and Fastnet Rock can only help to further enhance that with his record with his first runners being nothing short of exceptional."