Zoustar notched Group One win 99 for champion jockey Jim Cassidy when the two teamed up to win Saturday’s $1 million Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill.

In leading home a Magic Millions clean sweep trifecta result, Zoustar emerged as a leading contender for next month’s Caulfield Guineas in Melbourne.

Trainer Chris Waller has always held the colt in high regard and he was glad to see him overcome the outside barrier to beat a crack field in the feature.

“He’s a serious colt and now he is a very valuable colt,” Waller told reporters after the win.

“I had a lot of respect for his sire Northern Meteor and I have a lot of respect for him.”

“This race today was the telling point as to whether he was a serious horse or not and he is a serious horse.”

Zoustar was sold twice as a youngster by Magic Millions. He was bred by Kevin Dixon’s Racetree in Queensland and sold through the Racetree draft to KP Thoroughbreds for $85,000 at the 2011 National Weanling Sale.

From there he was prepared by Chloe Latif and Rhys Smith of Kulani Park and sold to Iskander Racing for $140,000 at the 2012 Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Right from his first start Zoustar showed he was a galloper with an exciting future. He won his first two starts in Sydney before heading to Brisbane and winning the Group Two Sires’ Produce Stakes.

He was then unlucky when second in a Northern Meteor quinella result in the Group One JJ Atkins Stakes before a short spell and then an eye catching fourth in the Group Three Run to The Rose.

From just six runs, Zoustar has won four races and with a Group One second he’s now earned his jubilant connections over $997,000.

Winning rider Jim Cassidy said the colt was still a work in progress and looked to have an exciting future.

“He is still really a two-year-old,” the veteran hoop noted. “He is a kid in a three-year-old’s body. He needed cover and things went right.”

Runner-up Dissident, a $210,000 Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase for trainer Peter Moody, continued his outstanding form in two states with a brave second, just a neck from the winner.

Last year’s Gold Coast Yearling Sale top seller Bull Point remarkably finished third after being tailed off during the middle stages of the race, storming home under Glyn Schofield in a performance that had to be seen to be believed.

Zoustar is the first winner from two to race for the winning Redoute’s Choice mare Zouzou.

A half sister to the group placed seven time winner Crestfallen, Zouzou also hails from the family of accomplished Magic Millions stakes winner Dusty Star and others including Diamond Benny, Hit it Star and Hitapotomoss.

The Golden Rose win of Zoustar highlighted the recent loss to the Australian breeding industry of last season’s champion first season sire Northern Meteor.

A Group One winning sprinter by Encosta de Lago, Northern Meteor has had just one track hit the track, but that crop already includes 25 winners including four stakes winners.

Winner: Zoustar
Breeding: Northern Meteor-Zouzou (Redoute’s Choice)
Race: ATC Golden Rose Stakes G1 (1400m)
Sold for: $85,000
Sale: 2011 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale
Vendor: Racetree
Buyer: KP Thoroughbreds
Sold for: $140,000
Sale: 2012 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale
Vendor: Kulani Park
Buyer: Iskander Racing
Earnings: $997,480
Owner(s): Iskander.Com (Mgr: SR Iskander), Ms JL Leslie, NJ Bearman, S Hedge, SR Ellis, AP McGuinness, JR Pritchard, J Holloway, JM Mahoney, Miss CV Mathews, JL Ellis & EJ Hughes
Trainer: Chris Waller (Rosehill)