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Louisiana-bred millionaire and stakes king Star Guitar has been retired due to a recurring quarter-crack that kept the son of Quiet American out of a fourth-peat bid in Saturday's Evangeline Mile Handicap. "He's been good to us every day of his life," trainer Al Stall Jr. told Steve Haskin of The Blood-Horse. "I thought his quarter crack from last year was gone, but it showed up in the same place and would have taken a long time for it to grow back healthy. He'd done enough for us so we sent him on his way." Star Guitar was riding a 10-race win streak that dated back to December 2010 at Fair Grounds. The bay horse has won more often that not in his time on track, racking up a 24-0-2 mark from 30 starts. Of his four unplaced finishes, three resulted in fourth-place runs, including the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap and Grade 3 Texas Mile. One of his thirds came in the Grade 3 Alysheba Stakes in 2009. The seven-year-old is a homebred of Maurice and Evelyn Benoit's Brittlyn Stable, and compiled a total of 22 stakes wins during his six years on track. Many of those were repeat wins in such events as the Louisiana Premier Night Championship at Delta Downs and Louisiana Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds. Star Guitar retires as the richest Louisiana-bred in history with $1,749,862 in lifetime earnings. He earned that distinction when capturing the Costa Rising Stakes at Fair Grounds on April 1, and merely added to his lucrative bankroll with victory in the Louisiana Legends Classic at Evangeline Downs on June 30. That race turned out to be the bay horse's swan song. "He deserves it," Evelyn Benoit said following her runner's historic score in the Costa Rising. "I'm thrilled. I love Louisiana." |
Following Star Guitar's win in the 2010 Louisiana Champions Day Classic, which catapulted him into millionaire's status, Benoit said, "He has the personality and intelligence of a human -- extremely sharp. He has the heart of a beast and the good looks beyond belief."
