Glamour mare Habibi has been retired and is set for a date with Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom.
The winner of the 2013 New Zealand Derby at Ellerslie for trainers Donna and the late Dean Logan and owners Peter and Heather Crofskey, Gavin Crofskey and Pam McIntyre, Habibi has raced in the United States since that season.
Her best performance since traversing hemispheres was her second in the Gr.1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes (2000m) at Woodbine, in Canada, in September last year.
American owner George Strawbridge opted to retire the Ekraar mare after she finished third in the Gr.3 Suwanee River (1800m) at Gulfstream Park a fortnight ago.
It was a bittersweet end for the Crofskeys, who have retained an interest in Habibi through her American career.
"We were there to see her last race and it was a pleasure to be there for it," Heather Crofskey said.
"She should have won a Group One over there. She lost by a whisker and might not have if the jockey had pulled the whip. She had a chequered career in the US which was a shame."
Plagued by injury since her three-year-old days, Habibi won six of her seven starts in New Zealand, winning the Listed Trevor Eagle Memorial and the Gr.2 Championship Stakes at Ellerslie as well as finishing third in the Gr.2 Avondale Guineas in the lead-up to her Derby triumph.
She then finished third in the Gr.1 Storm Queen Stakes and a luckless fourth in the Gr.1 Australian Oaks in Sydney before a joint deal negotiated by Otaki bloodstock agent Phill Cataldo and American agent Denny Boltinghouse saw her sold to Strawbridge.
"She gave us so many great memories and it's a shame to see her retired, but we always knew that day would come," Crofskey said.
"Her trainer over there, Mark Frostad, said she was a world-class mare and she'll get the best possible chance to start to her broodmare career with a visit to Animal Kingdom."
