Starcraft has his hoof set in a rubber mould

John Jenkins
A gold painted mould of one of Starcraft's hooves now adorns a wall of the Hawke's Bay Racing offices at the Hastings racecourse.
The specially crafted mould was done by Replica, a newly found Hastings company.
Raewynne Achten and Natalie Woefel are partners in the company, which has only been operating since the beginning of last month.
"We started out doing moulds of feet and hands of babies and young children and found there was a definite market out there," Raewynne Achten said.
"Then people wanted to know whether we do pets so we thought why not."
With the arrival of Australian champion Starcraft in Hastings six weeks ago, and all the hype surrounding the horse, Achten thought it was an opportune time to get a mould of one of the horse's hooves.
"Usually we just use small boxes to get moulds of hands and feet but we realised we would have to use something much bigger for a horse so we got a five litre bucket," Achten said.
"We had to go and practice on our neighbour's horse first before we felt confident enough to take one of Starcraft," she added.
Achten said a special casting compound, used as a dental product, is poured into the bucket and then the horse's hoof is submerged in it.
"The compound is quite runny when we first pour it in but sets like rubber quite quickly so you can't afford to waste any time."
She added that the compound was starting to set as Starcraft's hoof was placed in the bucket but, fortunately, the mould came out perfectly.
"It helped that Starcraft is such a great horse and didn't seem to bother too much and his trainer Garry Newham was so obliging," Achten added.
Once the mould is set it is sanded down, painted and then framed.
Replica is now in the process of getting a brochure printed in time for distribution at this Saturday's Hawke's Bay premier racemeeting where Starcraft attempts to complete a hat-trick of wins at the spring carnival in the $1 million Kelt Capital Stakes.
* Hastings-trained horses won only one race at the two-day Poverty Bay meeting, run last Thursday and Sunday, but it was an impressive performance.
Unaware made a winning debut in the Gisborne Motors Ford Maiden (1200m), digging deep in the final stages to hold out the fast finishing Joe's Cook.
Unaware is trained at Hastings by Dean Howard and raced by him in partnership with Napier motelier Bob Atkins and Hastings property broker Peter Rochester.
Howard purchased the four-year-old for $16,000 from the Karaka yearling sales and the horse is out of the Famous Star mare Famous Affair.
"He's always shown us a bit and won a trial at Taupo a while back and then finished second in another trial at Foxton recently," Howard said yesterday.
"We decided to race him in a one-eyed blinker the other day and that seem to help him concentrate."
Howard said Unaware reminds him of another promising Faltaat horse, Hey Pronto, that he and his wife Jahnn had in their stable a few years ago.
Hey Pronto recorded two wins and two seconds when prepared by the Howards before he was sold to Australia. The horse went on to be a group one winner from the Sydney stable of Gai Waterhouse.
* Jockey Steven King will test Hawke's Bay-owned Pillage 'n Plunder as a prospective Melbourne Cup mount at Flemington on Saturday.
King, who won the Adelaide Cup (3200m) aboard the New Zealand stayer in May last year, will ride the seven-year-old in The Age 150th Anniversary Plate (1720m).
The Victory Dance gelding has raced only twice since his group one victory, having strained a leg in a trial when being prepared for last year's Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
Pillage 'n Plunder finished last over 1400m when he returned to racing at Foxton on a slow track on September 2 and second-up was eighth of 10 on dead ground at Taupo on September 15.
"Saturday's run will tell us whether he's on track for the Melbourne Cup," King said.
Trainer John Keirnan arrived at Mornington with Pillage 'n Plunder last week and is looking forward to getting a better idea of how the horse is going on Saturday.
"I'm pretty happy with him so far. He's had an 18-month lay-off and he's a big, gross horse," said Keirnan who bred Pillage n' Plunder.
"It was impossible to get a line on him the other day at Taupo because he got hold of the kid a wee bit and got his head up.
"But we thought we'll bring him over as we don't want to die wondering."
Pillage 'n Plunder, who has 51.5kg in the Melbourne Cup, is currently 58th in the ballot order for the $A4.6 million event at Flemington on November 2.
After Saturday's race Kiernan said he would be quite happy to take on country cups such as the group three $A155,000 Geelong Cup (2400m) on October 20 in the leadup to the Melbourne Cup.
"If his form starts to fall into place we'll have a go at the big one, that's what we're here for," he said.