Starry Dreamer, dam of leading sire War Front, dies aged 24

Multiple stakes winner Starry Dreamer, best known as the dam of international leading sire War Front, died on Tuesday from infirmities of old age at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. She was 24.

Bred in Kentucky by Charles Nuckols jnr and sons, Starry Dreamer was a member of champion sprinter Rubiano's first crop. She began her career racing for the Russell Reineman Stable, and she became her sire's first stakes winner when she took the 1996 Gold Digger Stakes at Hawthorne Racecourse.

In April of 1997 Starry Dreamer was purchased privately by owner-breeder Joseph Allen and won the Palisades Stakes at Keeneland and the Regret Stakes at Churchill Downs in her first two starts for her new owner.

Starry Dreamer ran for two more years and repeatedly placed in Graded stakes company, including the 1997 Gazelle Handicap. She won six of her 31 starts and finished second or third in 15 others for earnings of $564,789.

Retired to Claiborne Farm, Starry Dreamer instantly made her mark as a broodmare. Her first three foals were all Graded stakes winners: Ecclesiastic (Pulpit), War Front (Danzig), and Teammate (A.P. Indy).

Additionally, her sons Riviera Cocktail and Jay Gatsby, full-brothers by Giant's Causeway, were multiple Graded stakes-placed runners.

Starry Dreamer's final foal is an unraced two-year-old colt by Medaglia D'Oro named North Dakota.

With War Front, Starry Dreamer has certainly left her mark on the breed, as he has sired 40 Group or Graded stakes winners including this year's Tattersalls Gold Cup hero Lancaster Bomber and July Cup winner US Navy Flag.

Starry Dreamer will be buried in Claiborne Farm's Marchmont cemetery.

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