Grade 1 winner Adieu dies at five
by Jeff Lowe
Adieu, a Grade 1 winner and Eclipse Award finalist as a two-year-old in 2005, died on June 17.
Dermot Ryan, manager of Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky, said he would wait for an official report before commenting on the cause of her death.
Adieu delivered her first foal, a healthy Giant’s Causeway filly, on January 24.
“She’s a lovely filly,” Ryan said of the foal.
Adieu, an El Corredor mare out of Irene’s Talkin, by At the Threshold, scored wins over eventual champion Folklore in the 2005 Astoria Stakes at Belmont Park and Spinaway Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course before winning the Frizette Stakes (G1) at Belmont.
Trained by Todd Pletcher for owners Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, Adieu also won the 2006 Delaware Oaks (G2) as a three-year-old. She won five of ten starts and earned $907,934.
Coolmore also recently lost Tacha, the dam of European champion and Irish freshman sire One Cool Cat.
Ryan said Tacha hemorrhaged and died after producing a healthy Johannesburg filly on May 1.
The 16-year-old Mr. Prospector mare out of Savannah Dancer, by Northern Dancer, was purchased privately from WinStar Farms in 2003 when One Cool Cat was Europe’s champion two-year-old colt.
WinStar principals Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt bought Tacha for $2.2-million in foal to Seattle Slew at the 2000 Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.
Demi O’Byrne bought One Cool Cat, by Storm Cat, on Magnier’s and Tabor’s behalf for $3.1-million at the 2002 Keeneland July selected yearling sale. One Cool Cat stands at Coolmore’s base in County Tipperary, Ireland. His first crop features eight winners, including four stakes winners, through June 18.
Bred and raced by Allen Paulson, Tacha won one of nine career starts.
Ryan said La Traviata, the beaten favorite in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, has been retired to Ashford. The four year-old Johannesburg filly out of Piedras Negras, by Unbridled, is in foal to Mr. Greeley.
La Traviata won her first three starts, including two stakes, by a combined margin of 27 1/2 lengths. Her only loss was a sixth-place finish in the Filly and Mare Sprint.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer