Breeders’ Cup winner Starlust will likely be an thrilling addition to Australia’s stallion ranks with the grade 1 winner set to face his first season at Nick Taylor’s up-and-coming Riverstone Lodge for an introductory price of AU$27,500 (approx. US$17,685).
With a Royal Ascot goal within the King Charles III Stakes (G1) nonetheless to come back in June, pleasure surrounds the present highest-rated son of Zoustar . Bred by Branton Courtroom Stud, Starlust hails from Zoustar’s second Northern Hemisphere-bred crop who have been conceived at Tweenhills Farm & Stud in Gloucestershire.
Skilled by Ralph Beckett in the UK for the Hay household, the now 4-year-old Starlust racked up a win within the 2023 Sirenia Stakes (G3), two additional victories, and a 3rd putting within the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Dash (G1T) as a 2-year-old, nevertheless it was as a 3-year-old that his profession would totally blossom.
Following three respectable efforts over six furlongs at Meydan (twice) and Ascot, the colt was dropped to 5 furlongs for six of his remaining eight 3-year-old begins—a transfer that will show career-defining.
A simple win in a category 2 handicap at York was backed up later within the season by a listed success and a 3rd putting within the Nunthorpe Stakes (G1), the place he completed a neck forward of reigning King Charles III Stakes heroine Asfoora .Join BloodHorse Every day
But it surely was at a spot famously coined by Bing Crosby “the place the turf meets the surf” that Starlust would make his identify identified on the worldwide stage when he produced rousing success within the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Turf Dash (G1T) at Del Mar, flying house below Rossa Ryan to attain by a neck.
“I watched the Breeders’ Cup Turf Dash and noticed the horse (Starlust) run on by Cogburn, who’s such an elite sprinter, and did some analysis into the horse and we felt he’d be really easy to mate out in Australia,” Taylor informed ANZ Bloodstock Information of Starlust, who would be the first stallion acquisition for Riverstone Lodge.
“He is obtained the very best profile of any son of Zoustar at stud and he is fairly distinctive being out of an Invincible Spirit mare so that offers him each alternative out right here which was one other key alongside his type.
“His type is world class, he is the highest-rated son of Zoustar on the earth and his pedigree would make sense in Australia. Clearly I Am Invincible is champion sire out right here and he is by Invincible Spirit (the identical as Starlust’s dam) so we get the very best of each worlds actually. Individuals know what works with I Am Invincible they usually know what works with Zoustar so it’s form of the right storm.”
Taylor mentioned he reached out to Dermot Farrington following Starlust’s victory on the Breeders’ Cup, who bought the horse on behalf of Mrs. Fitri Hay for 55,000 guineas (approx. US$76,754) at Ebook 2 of the 2022 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.
“Instantly after the Breeders’ Cup I seemed to see who bought the horse or who was managing the horse and Dermot Farrington had purchased him as a yearling for the Hays,” Taylor mentioned.
“I reached out to Dermot and it grew from there with a number of conversations forwards and backwards and we managed to work out a deal to get the horse to come back out to Australia after he’s retired.
“As a younger farm beginning out the enterprise I simply wished to get the farm to an excellent degree so far as the broodmares and yearlings go and to additionally run a high-level yearling consignment draft.
“I most likely began to consider stallions and the way we may transition into that subsequent part for across the final 9 months. My plan wasn’t to form of rush into standing any stallion, I wished to try to watch for a high-level horse to launch as our first stallion which I really feel we now have.”
Retirement will not be but the plan for Starlust, who’s presently nonetheless in coaching with Beckett in England and is being focused at a second group 1 prize within the King Charles III Stakes—a race by which he’ll as soon as once more tackle Henry Dwyer’s present champion Asfoora.
