NEWS
Prominent sire Gone West euthanized
Posted: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 2:23 PM
GONE WEST
PhotosByZ.com
by Steve Bailey
Elite sire Gone West, the sire of 98 stakes winners and 51 graded stakes winners, was euthanized on Monday following complications from colic. He was 25.
Mill Ridge Farm pensioned the bay Mr. Prospector stallion following the 2009 breeding season because of declining fertility.
Gone West showed signs of colic on Saturday and was taken to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, where Bob Hunt, D.V.M., examined him and determined that surgery was necessary. The procedure revealed a mass nearly the size of a football that had attached to a cord and wrapped around his small intestine.
Hunt removed the mass and did not find it necessary to resect any of his small intestine. His recovery appeared to be going well on Saturday and Sunday with the exception of an elevated heart rate and reflux—a build up of liquid that would not pass through his small intestine—but the intestine never opened up and he grew more uncomfortable with time.
Farm officials made the decision to euthanize Gone West at about 6 p.m. EDT on Monday, Mill Ridge managing partner Headley Bell said.
“On behalf of my mother, Alice Chandler, and everyone at Mill Ridge I want to thank everyone for their support of Gone West over the years,” Bell said in a statement. “It is a privilege to associate with such a classy horse and he has left a lasting legacy. He has been buried next to Diesis (GB) at Mill Ridge Farm.”
Gone West, the winner of the 1987 Dwyer (G1), Gotham (G2), and Withers (G2) Stakes, began his stud career at Mill Ridge in 1988 for an advertised fee of $40,000. His fee peaked at $150,000 in 2005.
Gone West’s top progeny from his 19 crops and 1,202 foals of racing age include champion sprinter and sire Speightstown; European two-year-old champion and sire Zafonic; two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) winner Da Hoss; John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) winner and sire Johar; multiple Grade 1 winner and sire Grand Slam; Belmont Stakes (G1) winner and sire Commendable; Grade 3 winner and sire Mr. Greeley; Grade 3 winner and leading sire Elusive Quality; leading French sire Zamindar; and many others.
Bred in Kentucky by Dr. William O. Reed, Gone West is out of the Secretariat mare Secrettame. He won six of 17 starts and earned $682,251. His progeny have earned $77,691,687.
Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times
