Retired to Riverstone Stud in the Hunter Valley last spring where he covered 102 mares, Starlust (GB) covered 102 mares at a fee of $27,500, but the Group I winning son of Zoustar has been returned to training in the UK.
Starlust is back in work with his former trainer Ralph Beckett and is slated to return in the Group II Temple Stakes at Haydock on May 23.
Explaining the decision, Alex Cole, racing manager to Starlust’s owners Jim and Fitri Hay, said: “He got about 70 mares in foal, but his fertility wasn’t the greatest. We thought he might struggle for support in his second season, so we brought him back into training.”
A Group winner in the UK, he won the Group I Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in 2024 and his last appearance on the track was a close fourth of 20 in the Group I King Charles III Stakes in 2025.
Starlust has been kept entire and a return to the breeding barn is a possibility.
“He’s certainly not infertile and he’s been left entire. A stallion career is not off the table and, if he gets a good one in his first crop in Australia, we can revisit the situation,” Cole added.
“He’s by Zoustar, so it'll probably be Australia and that is, of course, where his offspring will be running.”
If Starlust does make it to the feature sprints at Royal Ascot he won’t be the only Zoustar in action as his star Australian bred mare Joliestar took another step towards her UK adventure with a quiet barrier trial at Warwick Farm on Friday morning.
