Breeders' Cup winner Starlust will be an exciting addition to Australia's stallion ranks with the grade 1 winner set to stand his first season at Nick Taylor's up-and-coming Riverstone Lodge for an introductory fee of AU$27,500 (approx. US$17,685).
With a Royal Ascot target in the King Charles III Stakes (G1) still to come in June, excitement surrounds the current highest-rated son of Zoustar. Bred by Branton Court Stud, Starlust hails from Zoustar's second Northern Hemisphere-bred crop who were conceived at Tweenhills Farm & Stud in Gloucestershire.
Trained by Ralph Beckett in the United Kingdom for the Hay family, the now 4-year-old Starlust racked up a win in the 2023 Sirenia Stakes (G3), two further victories, and a third placing in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) as a 2-year-old, but it was as a 3-year-old that his career would fully blossom.
Following three respectable efforts over six furlongs at Meydan (twice) and Ascot, the colt was dropped to five furlongs for six of his remaining eight 3-year-old starts—a move that would prove career-defining.
An easy win in a class 2 handicap at York was backed up later in the season by a listed success and a third placing in the Nunthorpe Stakes (G1), where he finished a neck ahead of reigning King Charles III Stakes heroine Asfoora.
But it was at a place famously coined by Bing Crosby "where the turf meets the surf" that Starlust would make his name known on the worldwide stage when he produced rousing success in the 2024 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Del Mar, flying home under Rossa Ryan to score by a neck.
"I watched the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint and saw the horse (Starlust) run on by Cogburn, who is such an elite sprinter, and did some research into the horse and we felt he'd be so easy to mate out in Australia," Taylor told ANZ Bloodstock News of Starlust, who will be the first stallion acquisition for Riverstone Lodge.
"He's got the best profile of any son of Zoustar at stud and he's quite unique being out of an Invincible Spirit mare so that gives him every opportunity out here which was another key alongside his form.
"His form is world class, he's the highest-rated son of Zoustar in the world and his pedigree would make sense in Australia. Obviously I Am Invincible is champion sire out here and he's by Invincible Spirit (the same as Starlust's dam) so we get the best of both worlds really. People know what works with I Am Invincible and they know what works with Zoustar so it is sort of the perfect storm."
Taylor said he reached out to Dermot Farrington following Starlust's victory at the Breeders' Cup, who purchased the horse on behalf of Mrs. Fitri Hay for 55,000 guineas (approx. US$76,754) at Book 2 of the 2022 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.
"Immediately after the Breeders' Cup I looked to see who purchased the horse or who was managing the horse and Dermot Farrington had bought him as a yearling for the Hays," Taylor said.
"I reached out to Dermot and it grew from there with multiple conversations back and forth and we managed to work out a deal to get the horse to come out to Australia after he is retired.
"As a young farm starting out the business I just wanted to get the farm to a good level as far as the broodmares and yearlings go and to also run a high-level yearling consignment draft.
"I probably started to think about stallions and how we could transition into that next phase for around the last nine months. My plan wasn't to sort of rush into standing any stallion, I wanted to try and wait for a high-level horse to launch as our first stallion which I feel we have."
Retirement is not yet the plan for Starlust, who is currently still in training with Beckett in England and is being targeted at a second group 1 prize in the King Charles III Stakes—a race in which he will once again take on Henry Dwyer's current champion Asfoora.
