Champion sire Pins has died at New Zealand's Waikato Stud from complications caused by colic.

The winner of the 2000 Australian Guineas when trained by Clarry Conners, the 21-year-old stallion, a son of Snippets, died suddenly on Sunday.

"I was on course the day he won and knew then that he would be a great horse to be a part of and for the past 18 years. He has been a phenomenal attribute to Waikato Stud and the New Zealand breeding industry," Waikato stud principal Mark Chittick said.

"He was such a great character and had an incredible personality, but always knew how to keep you on your toes."

Pins has sired 11 individual Group One winners and produced 75 stakes winners.

He twice won the Centaine Award for the leading New Zealand-based sire for global progeny earnings and his record of stakes winners-to-runners places him in the top seven stallions of Australasia.

He was champion Hong Kong sire twice, producing dual Horse of the Year Ambitious Dragon and champion sprinter Aerovelocity.

"Pins was an incredible stallion and his versatility as a sire has always amazed me," Chittick said.

"To be able to leave one of the world's best sprinters in Aerovelocity, have Cup winners and winners aged two to eight is just incredible."

Pins' top Australian performer was 2007 Cox Plate winner El Segundo.

In 2018, his yearlings averaged over $133,000, more than four times his service fee, with a top price of $420,000.

Pins has been laid to rest under the trees at the Waikato stallion barn alongside fellow champions O'Reilly, Centaine and Pompeii Court.