by Jeff Lowe
Racing Hall of Fame member Princess Rooney was euthanized on Tuesday morning because of the effects of Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis. She was 28.
The Verbatim mare out of Parrish Princess, by Drone, was diagnosed with the disease in August.
“It started attacking the nervous system and the nerves shut down and started deteriorating the muscles,” said Matt Howard, manager of Robert Gentry’s Gentry Farm in Lexington, where Princess Rooney lived since 1995. “She started losing so much body mass that we just decided to put her down before something bad happened.”
Princess Rooney won 17 of 21 career starts, including five Grade 1 victories. In her best season, at four, she won the Vanity Handicap (G1), Spinster Stakes (G1), and inaugural Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) at Hollywood Park for trainer Neil Drysdale. She received the 1984 Eclipse Award as champion older female.
After owner Paula Tucker retired Princess Rooney, she was sold for $5.5-million to Wichita Equine Inc. at the 1985 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. At the time, the purchase price was the third highest ever paid for a broodmare at public auction. She was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1991.
Princess Rooney produced seven starters who earned a combined $377,640. She was pensioned after failing to produce foals in 2005 and ’06. The last two years, Princess Rooney watched over Gentry’s yearling fillies once they had been weaned.
“She was one of the easiest-going horses I’ve ever been around,” Howard said. “There is just something special about her. She’s able to teach the younger generations the best way to be, and I can’t even remember a time we had a problem with her. Doing vaccinations, vet checks, she’d just stand there like it was nothing. She knew it was part of what was going on.”
Howard said the farm is hoping to receive approval to bury Princess Rooney at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer