Vale trailblazer Starcraft

Waikato Stud’s history-making Group 1 graduate Starcraft has passed away.

A five-time winner at the elite level and a member of New Zealand’s Racing Hall of Fame, the chestnut was bred by the Matamata nursery and sold at Karaka in 2002 for $80,000.

He was a son of Soviet Star and the farm’s three-time Broodmare of the Year Flying Floozie and was raced by the late Paul Makin.

During the mid-2000s, Starcraft gained fame in both Hemispheres, first as the champion Australian 3-year-old of 2003-04 and the following year as champion sprinter in New Zealand.

His defining achievement came in 2006 as the first New Zealand-bred horse to win at Group 1 level in Europe when he claimed the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp in Paris for trainer Luca Cumani and subsequently the G1 Queen Elizabeth ll S. at Newmarket.

Starcraft was initially prepared by Gary Newham and posted Group 1 victories in the Australian Derby and Chipping Norton S.

He made his mark in his homeland and was narrowly denied a clean sweep of the Hawke’s Bay spring carnival features. He was successful in the G1 Hawke’s Bay Mudgway Partsworld S. and the G2 Stoney Bridge S. before finishing a close second in the G1 Kelt Capital S.

Starcraft began the second phase of his career at Arrowfield Stud before relocating to Rosemont Stud where he passed away this week.

He sired Group 1 winners Star Witness, currently at stud as is another son in Graff and grandson Star Turn, and We Can Say It Now. To date, he has produced 350 winners with 20 of those at stakes level.