Written by Jessica Owers
An announcement was made by Chris Waller on Tuesday afternoon that the delightful stakes-winning mare Haut Brion Her (Zoustar), a homebred for Three Bridges Thoroughbreds in Victoria, has been retired.
Waller said the 6-year-old mare had been a talented racehorse through her three-and-some seasons on the track, but that sadly the best of her eluded them.
“Haut Brion Her has been a pleasure to train, she has a wonderful nature and, being a Zoustar, will make a lovely broodmare,” the trainer said in his press release. “A decision has been made to retire (her) with the breeding season fast approaching, as it was a race against time to get her ready for another tilt at The Everest.”
“A decision has been made to retire (her, Haut Brion Her) with the breeding season fast approaching, as it was a race against time to get her ready for another tilt at The Everest.” - Chris Waller
Haut Brion Her was among the field in last year’s The Everest, finishing a creditable fifth behind Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt), just 3.4l in arrears.
The mare last raced in March this year, fifth once again in the G1 The Galaxy to Eduardo (Host {Chi}), and her overall stats read at 13 lifetime starts for six wins and four seconds. She earned $1.47 million in total prizemoney, making her the third richest Zoustar race mare behind Sunlight and Mizzy.
Among her wins was the G2 Blazer S. at Flemington and the G2 Sheraco S. at Randwick. In the latter, she ran the fastest-ever time for the race over that distance. She was also a narrow second to Gytrash (Lope De Vega {Ire}) in the Yes Yes Yes S. following The Everest.
“She has been a very good horse to the stable,” Waller said.
Chris Waller
Born special
Haut Brion Her is a homebred for the Liston family at Three Bridges. She was initially pointed at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, but was withdrawn and retained by the ownership group of Gary Johnson, Steve Gardiner and the Liston family.
The mare is the seventh foal from the brilliant broodmare One In A Million (Redoute’s Choice), making her a half-sister to the multiple stakes winner Karacatis (Hussonet {USA}) and Listed winner Shamillion (Shamardal {USA}).
Haut Brion Her was also the last foal from One In A Million, who died in January 2019.
“She was born special,” said Toby Liston of Three Bridges. “Pauline said she was the best foal we’ve had on the farm in 10 years, and when we relayed that to our biggest owner, Gary Johnson, he asked us why in the hell we were selling her. So he purchased the majority share off us and we kept 10 per cent to race.
"She would have made good money at Magic Millions, but we always thought she was something special and it turned out we were right.”
Haut Brion Her as a foal
Haut Brion Her was first or second in her first nine races, a remarkable run that stretched from November 2018 to September the following year. The decision to keep her was vindicated nicely. Liston said she’s been a significant up for the family during certain troubling times.
“Dad had recurring cancer and has beaten it, and Pauline got run over by a horse and nearly died,” he said. “Every time the family has needed a kick, we got a good racehorse. The day she won the Blazer at Flemington, it was one of those special, fantastic days for all of us.”
One In A Million
The decision to retire Haut Brion Her was warmly welcomed by Liston and his fellow owners, who had hovered on doing it last year.
“At her best she was as good as anybody, and it’s a pity we didn’t get to see the best of her,” he said. “But lightly raced Group mares are the best Group 1-producing mares on statistics, so we’re very confident with her moving forward. I’m rapt that Waller retired her because we didn’t want to bugger her on the track.”
"At her best she (Haut Brion Her) was as good as anybody, and it’s a pity we didn’t get to see the best of her. But lightly raced Group mares are the best Group 1-producing mares on statistics." - Toby Liston
In anticipation of her retirement, last year Haut Brion Her was booked to I Am Invincible at Yarraman Park, who she will visit this season instead.
“We respected our clients’ decision to want to race her on last year because you get these life-changing horses so rarely,” Liston said. “But I see her now as a lifelong broodmare, and she’ll die here on the farm in hopefully 25 years’ time. And hopefully she’ll set us up because these elite broodmares are so hard to get, so we’re thankful we’ve got one.”
Haut Brion Her's connections after winning the G2 Blazer S.
Back in 2015, the Listons headed to the Inglis Sydney Weanling and Broodmare Sale to buy One In A Million with bloodstock agent Paul Willetts. Peter Liston had an explicit budget of $120,000, but his son bought the mare from Amarina Farm at a price of $170,000.
“He didn’t talk to me for two days,” Liston said. “And I get it. If you overspent $50,000 on every mare you buy, you’d go broke, but as it turned out we were right in this instance, and we’ve ended up with this fantastic mare.”
He said the grand hope was that Haut Brion Her would eventually produce a filly that they could hang onto at Three Bridges.
“Her pedigree is enormous,” Liston said. “We’ve been able to breed and raise her on the farm, which is a real feather in our cap. It’s great to have something of her quality going forward, and she’ll never get sold.”
