Starlight Racing
Setting the Pace Among Thoroughbred Partnerships


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With one of the most sparkling records in the sport, the Starlight Racing team has achieved success at the heights of North America’s elite Grade I sphere for more than a decade. This remarkable accomplishment reflects Starlight’s primary goal—competing and winning at the highest level—and its commitment and ability to reach that goal.

 

One of the stable’s brightest current stars is our GI winning filly Hilda’s Passion, who is vying for championship honors as the best female sprinter in the United States. Owned in partnership with C. E. Glasscock, the four-year-old Canadian Frontier filly has won the Ballerina (GI), the Vagrancy (GII), the Raven Run (GII), the Inside Information (GII) the Hurricane Bertie (GIII). She set a track record in the Inside Information (GII) at Gulfstream Park, stopping the clock at 1:20.45 for seven furlongs. Through September 2011, Hilda’s Passion had earned $739,493 and had run away from her competition in graded stakes in New York, Kentucky and Florida.

 

Ailalea, also a four-year-old filly with blazing speed, has made her mark by winning two graded stakes in the Starlight silks, the Tempted (GIII) at Aqueduct and the Dogwood (GIII) at Churchill Downs. The striking daughter of Pulpit took the partnership to the $584,300 Kentucky Oaks (GI) in 2010 and gave everyone a major thrill by racing close to the lead for much of the race. Ailalea’s stablemate Caminadora also shined at Churchill Downs, winning the Regret Stakes (GIII) on the turf.

  

Another recent Starlight hero is Take the Points, a $160,000 purchase as a yearling, who captured the Secretariat Stakes (GI) at Arlington Park and the Jamaica Handicap (GI) at Belmont Park. The handsome gray son of Even the Score carried the Starlight team all the way to Dubai, where he finished a gallant fifth in the $5-million Dubai Duty Free (GI) at Meydan Racecourse in 2010. He completed his racing career with earnings of $943,590 and multiplied his return on investment by establishing himself as a stallion prospect; he subsequently was sold for stud duty.



Position Limit also made headlines for Starlight in 2010 with an undefeated juvenile campaign in which she clearly established herself as a brilliant leader of her generation. The daughter of Bellamy Road, a bargain $55,000 yearling purchase, won the Adirondack Stakes (GII) at Saratoga Race Course by five lengths and later was sold for $400,000.




Many current partnership horses have displayed promising talent. Artisanal, a three-year-old filly by More Than Ready, captured the Little Silver Stakes at Monmouth Park in May 2011 during a hot three-race win streak. Other bright three-year-olds in the Starlight galaxy include Saucy Jade, who established a turf course record at Monmouth while running 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.25.

 
Starlight’s platoon of juvenile runners in 2011 already has yielded smart winner Algorithms, a son of one of the world’s most valued young sires, Bernardini, and a half brother to Starlight’s track record setting multiple graded stakes winner Keyed Entry. If Algorithms can progress in the same manner as did Keyed Entry, he could become yet another Starlight runner to seek the coveted roses of the Kentucky Derby (G1).

 

Starlight Racing began as the culmination of founders Jack and Laurie Wolf’s virtually lifelong interest in racing. The Wolfs acquired Harlan’s Holiday for $97,000 in 2000 and this standout colt went on to win the Florida Derby (GI), the Blue Grass Stakes (GI) and the Donn Handicap (GI) in 2002 and 2003. He and the Wolfs traveled to the United Arab Emirates, where the colt finished a strong second in the world’s richest race, the $6-million Dubai World Cup, earning $1.2-million for that effort alone. Overall, Harlan’s Holiday bankrolled $3,632,664, and he has transitioned since his racing career into a respected and valuable sire.

    

Ashado raised the bar even higher for Starlight, earning championship laurels as America’s best three-year-old filly in 2004 and as best older filly or mare in 2005 while racing for the Wolfs and partners. A $170,000 yearling purchase, Ashado triumphed in Grade I races at two, three and four, winning six overall, including the ultra prestigious Breeders’ Cup Distaff (GI) and Kentucky Oaks (GI). After collecting $3,931,440 on the track, Ashado generated maximum electricity in the sales ring, eliciting a world record bid of $9-million from Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.

   

While Ashado was still racing, Purge emerged as the stable’s next star, capping his career with a victory in the 2005 Cigar Mile Handicap (G1) in New York following 2004 wins in the Peter Pan (GII) and Jim Dandy (GII) Stakes. A $180,000 yearling acquisition, Purge earned $905,434 before embarking on a stud career.

  

After Donald and Barbara Lucarelli joined the Starlight team as principals in 2004, they and the Wolfs celebrated the feats of the stunning gray filly Octave, who won the 2006 Adirondack Breeders’ Cup Stakes (GII) and finished a close second in both the Matron Stakes (GII) and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (GII). In 2007, Octave collected trophies in two of America’s premier races for three-year-old fillies, winning the Mother Goose Stakes (GI) and the Coaching Club American Oaks (GI). Retired with earnings of $1,660,934, the $350,000 yearling purchase Octave was sold to Sheikh Mohammed for $4-million.

  

In 2008, Monba burst from out of the pack to win the Blue Grass Stakes (GI) at Keeneland and catapult the Starlight team to the Kentucky Derby as the stable’s fourth starter in America’s most popular race. A $200,000 yearling selection, Monba earned $669,034 and was sold privately for stud duty in Pennsylvania after incurring a minor injury in mid-2009. Prior to Monba, the Wolfs and Lucarellis campaigned the aforementioned Keyed Entry, who won the Hutcheson Stakes (GII) at Gulfstream and set a track record of 1:27.12 for 7 ½ furlongs. He also went on to run in the Kentucky Derby and is now at stud in Florida

   

Most of Starlight’s unrivaled success has been achieved under the guidance of five-time Eclipse Award-winning and Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Todd Pletcher. Typically, jockeys such as Ramon Dominguez, Javier Castellano and John Velazquez, all Eclipse Award winners themselves as America’s best riders, are aboard the Starlight runners, giving the stable the significant advantage of professionals who have longstanding records of winning the biggest races at the best racetracks.

    

We proudly offer our partners access to the highest echelon of racing in North America. A select group of new partners is welcome to join us, and we invite inquiries as we acquire yearlings of 2011. Our partners for these additions to our roster will receive shares in 10-15 yearlings, with most of those acquired at the Keeneland September yearling sale, the world’s largest marketplace for young stock.

 

According to a longstanding tenet of the racetrack, young horses always give us hope for the future. We anticipate visiting many more winner’s circles in the coming years and look forward to seeing you there.