First Stakes Win for Zoustar Mare
Reigning champion sire Zoustar had four winners around Australia on Saturday including his new stakes-winner Hearcomesthestar and blueblood mare Silver Wedding, who promises to become a stakes-winner.
The John Moloney trained Hearcomesthestar has been working through her grades and the five year-old improved off a last start stakes placing at Flemington to take out the Listed MRC Bel Esprit Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield.
She scored by a length and a half for Beau Mertens over race favourite Bustling.
Bel Esprit Stakes | Hearcomesthestar
She's a star, alright! Hearcomesthestar finishes along the outside running rail to claim her first black-type success in the Bel Esprit Stakes ⭐️
📺 Ch. 78/68, Foxtel 529, Kayo or via our app
REPLAYS: https://t.co/ZIa4a034ry pic.twitter.com/uYH7zDVvxg— Racing.com (@Racing) May 30, 2026
A $150,000 Magic Millions purchase for her trainer from Widden Stud, Hearcomesthestar has the overall record of seven wins and nine placings from 30 starts with prizemoney topping $500,000.
“Always a dream to get the black type into a horse,” Moloney said.
“Then to get a black-type win just puts the icing on the cake.
“She’s just got better each time I bring her back, she goes a little bit better. She loves her training life and she loves the people around her.
“You’ve got the John Monash coming up but I’d just like to give her a chance in the later spring, if she does take another step, who’s to say we can’t just win another nice race along the way, but she’s in great order.”
Hearcomesthestar is a half-sister to Group placed Ndola and is the best of three winenrs from Group III winning Nicconi mare Hear the Chant.
Hear the Chant was covered last spring by Home Affairs and her yearling colt by Blue Point (IRE) sold for $100,000 in the Widden draft at Inglis Premier this year to Ricky Yiu.
Hearcomesthestar is the 81st stakes-winner for Zoustar and is his 11th in Australia this season.
Zoustar also featured at Eagle Farm where the Ciaron Maher trained mare Silver Wedding resumed from a spell to score a dominant win in the Benchmark 85 event over 1000m.
Silver Wedding lets down beautifully to take the second at Eagle Farm 🟡⚫@kpmcevoy @cmaherracing pic.twitter.com/nxMSf3lAXN
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) May 30, 2026
An $800,000 Inglis Easter purchase for Cambridge Stud, Silver Wedding is a full sister to Group I MVRC William Reid Stakes winner Schwarz and is one of three winners from Group II winner Summer Sham.
“She just keeps improving a little bit each prep. She went over to New Zealand, she ran a really solid race there and she seems to like Queensland,” said Ciaron Maher, who would love to get Black Type with the valuable mare.
“She’s in for a really good prep. So we’ll see where she gets to, but we can probably raise the bar a little bit.”
