Starry Dreamer, dam of War Front, dies at 24

Multiple stakes winner Starry Dreamer, the dam of internationally prominent sire War Front, died this week at age 24 due to the infirmities of old age. She will be buried in the Marchmont cemetery at Claiborne Farm, where she resided for owner Joseph Allen.

Starry Dreamer won the Gold Digger Stakes as a juvenile, and the Regret Stakes and Palisades Stakes as a 3-year-old. Her 12 stakes placings included a runner-up effort in the Grade 1 Gazelle Handicap as a 3-year-old. In total, the daughter of Rubiano won 6 of 31 starts for earnings of $564,789.

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As a broodmare, Starry Dreamer produced seven winners from as many starters, including three graded stakes winners. War Front, by Danzig, won the Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Breeders' Cup at Saratoga in Allen’s colors and placed in five other graded stakes, including two Grade 1 events. Now standing at Claiborne Farm, he is the sire of 73 stakes winners worldwide, including Grade/Group 1 winners Air Force Blue, Avenge, Brave Anna, Data Link, Declaration of War, Jack Milton, Lancaster Bomber, Lines of Battle, Roly Poly, The Factor, U S Navy Flag, and Warning Flag. War Front’s advertised stud fee for 2018 was $250,000, tying him as the second-most expensive stallion in North America.

Starry Dreamer also produced multiple Grade 2 winner Teammate, who was also multiple Grade 1-placed, and is now a stakes producer; and multiple Grade 3 winner Ecclesiastic. Her foals also included Grade 2-placed stakes winner Riviera Cocktail and Grade 2-placed Jay Gatsby. Her final foal is North Dakota, an unraced 2-year-old colt by Medaglia d'Oro. He has breezed throughout the summer at Niall Brennan’s training center in Ocala, Fla.