by Steve Bailey
Grade 1 winner Runaway Groom, the sire of 31 graded stakes winners including champion sprinter and sire Cherokee Run, was euthanized at age 28 due to complications of old age on Friday at Vinery in Lexington.
The gray son of Blushing Groom (Fr), out of the stakes-winning Call the Witness mare Yonnie Girl, was pensioned in February after 22 seasons at stud.
“He started to get uncomfortable, and there was no way we were going to let him suffer,” Vinery stallion manager Mike Heitzmann said. “He was a great horse on the racetrack, a great horse in the stallion barn, and a great horse to be around on a daily basis.”
Runaway Groom, Canada’s 1982 champion three-year-old colt, won six of 18 starts and earned $347,537 over two seasons.
A winner on turf and dirt at distances from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles, Runaway Groom won two-thirds of the 1982 Canadian Triple Crown and the Travers Stakes (G1), in the latter defeating all three of America’s classic-winning colts from that year—Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Gato Del Sol, Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Aloma’s Ruler, and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner and eventual Horse of the Year Conquistador Cielo.
Bred in Canada by Gardiner Farms and campaigned by Albert Coppola, Runaway Groom was retired following a second-place finish in a one-mile allowance race at Santa Anita Park on December 28, 1983, while trained by Charlie Whittingham.
Runaway Groom entered stud in 1984 at El Rancho Murrieta in Murrieta, California, for a private fee. He moved to Double Diamond Farm in Ocala the following year and remained there until moving to Vinery in 1991.
Through June 10, Runaway Groom has sired 684 winners and 72 stakes winners from 1,097 foals of racing age. His progeny have earned $55,226,579.
Runaway Groom has been a versatile sire, getting Grade 1 winners on turf and dirt with greatly varying distance capabilities. His sons at stud include Cherokee Run, who won the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) en route to champion sprinter honors; Grade 1 winners Down the Aisle and Wekiva Springs; and Grade 3 winner Najran.
Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times